Belief
by forensicsgirl
Summary: COMPLETE! Sequel to 'Kathy'. The fang gang uncover a series of disturbing rituals involving the murder of witches. Meanwhile, Cordy's visions are taking a serious toll... They might just need the help of a certain witch from Sunnydale. Please R
1. Dinner and a Vision

_This takes place a month after the events of 'Kathy', which was set during the 2nd season of Angel. I'll be continuing__my exploration of Angel's relationship with his sister, Kathy, who was introduced briefly in the season 1 episode 'The Prodical', and whom I resurrected for my last story._

_As with 'Kathy', I wrote this back in 2001. Well, I started to write it and then got sidetracked. I've recently unburied it from the depths of my computer and thought I'd give it another shot - despite having forgotten where I was going with it in the first place... However, I have re-jigged the plot and am now good to go. Hope you enjoy. Let me know..._

**_Disclaimer: If I owned these guys (and was a multi-billionaire) they would still be on the air. They don't belong to me :-( They are the rightful property and brain-children of the geniuses (or should that be genii) Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt. Grr Arrrgg._**

* * *

The stars shone against the midnight blue sky as Angel looked out over his city. From his vantage point - the top of a 16-story building - everything seemed peaceful.

Of course, things were rarely as they seemed.

Angel knew from experience that things never were peaceful for long in Los Angeles, the city he had made his home for a little less than two years. There was always some new terror rising up from the depths, some new pain for the city's residents to have to endure.

He was here to help them. To alleviate their suffering whenever he could. But it wasn't enough. He had learnt that the hard way.

He was here to fight for his own redemption. To make up for the horrible atrocities he had carried out as Angelus, one of the most vicious vampires to ever walk the earth. He had damaged so many lives, killed so many families. But then a gypsy curse and nearly a hundred years of wandering the earth with no purpose except to feel the weight of his restored soul had led him to a new path.

He had been sent initially to help the Vampire Slayer, the girl chosen of her generation to fight evil and protect the world. Then he had fallen in love with her, and that unleashed more complications than either of them had ever expected. So he had come here, to LA, to carve out his own battle against the dark forces to which he had once belonged.

All these thoughts and more swam through his mind before being interrupted by the shrill ring of his cellular phone.

'Are you still patrolling?' came the voice of his associate and friend, Cordelia Chase.

'Yeah. What's wrong?' he asked, as a blast of static came over the line. He was more than two hundred and fifty years old, but never in his undead life had he ever come across anything quite as frustrating and, in his opinion, utterly useless, as cell phones. Still, Cordy insisted on buying him one and made him carry it everywhere.

'What was that?' she asked as the line cleared again.

'I said, what's wrong?'

'Nothing. I'm going out. Just thought I'd let you know. Pizza with Kathy.'

'Oh,' he replied. 'Are ...' A voice in the background interrupted him.

'Wait a sec,' Cordy told him, before conferring with someone in the office. 'Okay, I'll ask. Kathy wants to know if you want to join us when you're done there.'

'Uh, sure. Where will you be?'

'Marco's. See you later.'

They hung up and Angel took another long look around, and decided to make another sweep of the area before heading off to meet the girls.

* * *

The restaurant was busy but not crowded as Cordelia and Kathy were shown to a table under an archway that almost looked authentic. Their waiter rattled off several house specials in a thick, Italian accent, and then left them to their menus. 

Cordy sat back in her chair and sighed, letting the stresses of the day escape. She had grown to truly love her job, working with Angel and the others to help to helpless, but long days took their toll. Not to mention the blinding headaches she got each time she had a vision of someone in trouble.

Kathy looked across the table at her companion and felt a familiar pang of worry. Everything seemed to be taking its toll on Cordelia lately. She constantly seemed tired and worn down, and her vision headaches seemed to be getting worse.

Kathy knew that when the Powers that Be chose Cordelia to be their connection to Angel, they had done so for a reason. But their decision worried her all the same. Doyle, who had been the original seer of the group, had been half-demon and the visions were still difficult for him to cope with. For Cordy, one hundred percent human, they were torture. Kathy wondered how long her body could really cope with her gift.

Cordy saw the expression on Kathy's face and sighed. 'I'm okay,' she said. She'd been telling people that a lot lately.

'You sure?' Kathy asked in her soft Irish accent. 'Maybe you should get some sleep.'

'I'm good,' she insisted. 'I really am. Let's order. I'll feel a hundred times better with one of Marco's pizzas in front of me.'

A short time later they were tucking into the best pizza in LA and chatting like old friends. When Kathy had shown up just a month before, Cordelia had been wary. But Kathy had proven herself over and over to be loyal and decent and worthy of trust. The two were becoming fast friends.

Kathy had been sent by the Powers, much in the same way Doyle had been, to help Angel back onto the right path. Only difference was, in her case, there was a personal interest. She had been his little sister. She had been brought back from the dead more than two hundred years after her brother, a recently turned and vicious vampire named Angelus, had killed her and the rest of their family.

But everything had changed in two centuries. Angel had his soul restored and now he fought evil and helped the innocent alongside Cordelia and their friends, Wesley and Gunn.

Things had changed in Kathy's life as well. She had died aged 11, in the year 1753. When she was brought back to life by the Powers that Be she was still 11 years old, but the year was 1988. She remembered her old life so vividly, and this new world was so strange, that her confusion lasted for many years of her life.

She had been raised by a woman she came to call her Grandmother in the small coastal town of Glencolumcille in Donegal, Ireland. There she spent a great deal of her time studying magic and practicing to become an accomplished witch. There was no time, let alone friends, to have girlish conversations about clothes and men and music. Subjects that she was now discussing in some detail with Cordy, when Angel entered the restaurant.

'Hey,' he said as he reached their table. He looked somewhat sheepish, as if he worried that he was interrupting.

'Have a seat,' Kathy reassured him. 'Want some wine?'

'Uh, yeah. Just a little.'

Cordelia finished the last of her Hawaiian special and looked at him expectantly. 'So, how'd patrol go?'

'Quiet. You two been having a good night?'

Both girls shrugged. 'Oh, you know,' said Cordy.

'Girl talk.' Kathy informed him.

Angel smiled. He knew they had been getting closer over the past few weeks and he was glad. Neither of them really had any close friends in their lives outside of work.

Angel was about to comment on this when pain flashed across Cordelia's face and her hand shot up to her head. Her body jerked in reflex to the vision she was having. Angel rushed to her side as he always did, and steadied her, making sure that she didn't fall to the floor or hurt herself.

'Cordy?' he said as he held her shoulders tightly. 'Easy. What do you see?'

Images in quick succession flashed into her mind. A girl cowering in a corner of a disused building. A flash of steel. The girl screaming in fear and pain. A dark shadow looming over her. Not only did she see it all in her mind, but she felt it. She felt the girl's pain, her fear. It crept up into her throat like bile and was worse than any headache the visions caused her.

She thought that getting these brain-flashes from the Powers that Be would get easier with time. Sometimes, she even hoped they'd stop, eventually. But it seemed that lately they just got worse. Sometimes it felt like the pain would never go away,it just grew inside of her, pulling her apart from the inside out.

A tear slid down her cheek as the vision stopped and she found herself in Angel's arms. 'Oh god, Angel, she's so scared,' she said as she wiped away the tear and looked at her friend. 'She's in a warehouse. Adisused warehouse. Down in the Breakwater district, I think. Something's after her. I couldn't see what.'

'Make sure she gets home safely,' he told Kathy as he got up and grabbed his coat. 'Get some rest,' he said to the seer on his way out the door.

'Come on Cordy,' Kathy said as she helped her friend to her feet. 'Let's get you home.'


	2. Inquisitori

_Well, the story's really starting to come together in my head - my fingers are just having a hard time keeping up... I won't be able to update until Monday night (14th March), as I'm out of town on a job, but hopefully this'll tide you over til then... If you like it, let me know..._

* * *

An hour later, with Cordelia tucked safely in bed; Kathy turned the key to her own apartment and dumped her bag on the couch. Cordy had been so wiped out that she was asleep almost the second her head hit the pillow. For the second time that evening,Kathy worried about the effect the visions were having on her friend. 

After lighting several candles and some incense, she poured herself a glass of wine and slumped down on the couch with a large leather-bound book in her lap. Research. Spell-learning. Her Grandmother had brought her up to be in a state of constant preparation, even if she didn't know what she was actually preparing for. What spare-time she had was usually spent bent over a book. That or in meditation, honing her magical skills.

She lost herself in the volume, unaware of time passing until a knock on her door brought her back to the present. Uncurling herself from the couch she walked to the door.

'Who is it?' She asked.

'Angel,' he announced through the door. Sliding free the dead bolt, she opened the door and let him in.

'Did you find her?' she asked, having a bad feeling about the situation.

'I was too late,' he told her. 'The girl was already dead.'

She had gotten to know Angel well in the month she had been in his life, and she could tell that what he had seen had unsettled him. The fact that he had failed to protect an innocent was a source of pain deep inside him, where she couldn't reach.

'What was it?' She gestured for him to sit, and he sat down at one end of the sofa. She sat on the other end, keeping a respectful distance.

'I don't know. It, whatever _it_ was, was gone before I got there. Did a lot of damage though. The girl's throat was cut. And there were words carved into her skin.'

'What did they say?' Kathy wanted to know, feeling increasing disturbed.

Angel took out a piece of paper from his coat pocket and unfolded it for her to see. She took it and studied the quick but detailed sketches he had drawn before calling the police. The words on the girl's flesh were intricately drawn. And chillingly familiar.

'It looks like Latin,' Angel commented. 'But not any form I've ever seen.'

'Inquisitori,' she finally said in a hushed voice.

'The Inquisition?' Angel asked.

'There was a fanatical branch that had their own dialect, reserved solely for use during their Inquisitorial hearings. It was how they recorded their judgements. They were excommunicated from the Catholic Church, their teachings branded heresy and all records regarding them destroyed. Even the brutality of the medieval Church had its limits.'

'So what is a medieval abstraction of Latin doing carved into the flesh of a twenty-two year old girl in L.A?' Angel wanted to know.

Kathy shook her head in disgust. 'Looks like someone was passing judgement.'

'How do you know all this anyway? Are you channelling Wesley?'

'My Grandmother told me about them. The stories about La Inquisición de la más Pura Palabra were passed down among the Wise Women.'

'The Inquisition of the Purest Word,' Angel translated. 'That's what they called themselves?'

Kathy nodded.

'There was only one word I recognised,' Angel told her, pointing it out on the sketch. 'It was pretty small, but in the light of what these guys called themselves… The word _Logos _had been carved over her heart.'

'The Word of God,' Kathy said.

* * *

Wesley and Kathy were pouring over books in the foyer of the Hyperion Hotel when Cordelia looked up from her computer terminal and announced, 'I've found her.' 

Melissa Simpson had been lovely in life, with long dark hair and blue eyes; studying for her Masters in Women's Studies part-time at UCLA. She also ran a small store.

'_Blessed Be_,' read Cordelia. 'A magic shop.'

Kathy leaned closer to the screen. 'Was she a practitioner or just a retailer?'

'Can't tell from this,' Cordy answered. 'Although, she did inherit the store from her mom.'

'Maybe that wasn't the only think she inherited,' Wesley suggested. 'Gunn and I should go over to her apartment and check it out.'

'So, you're thinking the motive for her murder was the fact that she was a witch?' Cordy wanted to know.

'Nothing Inquisitori liked better than killing a witch,' Kathy replied.

Cordy printed the details of the shop address off for Wesley. 'She lived in the apartment above her store,' she told him.

As Wesley hung the phone up after his call to Gunn, Angel walked in.

'Where are we?' he asked them.

'Our dead girl may have been a witch,' Cordy informed him. 'Wesley and Gunn are going to go check it out.'

'Makes sense,' Angel commented as he took a seat. 'Nothing the Inquisition loved more than killing a witch.'

Wesley and Cordelia exchanged a look, and Cordy barely contained a chuckle. Angel looked from one to the other, and final at Kathy, seeking an explanation.

'What did I say?'

Kathy smiled. 'Exactly the same thing I did not two minutes ago.'

'You'd better watch out, Kathy,' Cordy told her, trying not to giggle. 'The brooding might turn out to be hereditary too.'

Angel glared at the brunette.

Wesley cleared his throat. 'Moving swiftly on, Gunn is meeting me at _Blessed Be_ to check out the girl's apartment. Kathy, I assume you'll continue your translation of the Latinate text?'

'Yes, I think I'm getting _somewhere_ with it,' Kathy told him. 'I just don't quite know _where_. There's very little reference material regarding the language or the order who devised it.'

'Well, just do your best,' Angel told her.

Wesley picked up his jacket and made his way out the door. As Kathy resumed her reading, Cordy regarded Angel with ill-concealed disbelief.

'What?' he asked her.

'Just do your best?' she asked him, incredulous.

'Yeah. So?'

'If it were me you'd be all, _'Get it done, Cordy'_, _'Have you got anything yet, Cordy?'_. Nepotism's a bitch.'

She flashed Kathy a cheeky grin and was rewarded with a smile in return. Angel shook his head, not understanding what was going on, and moved past them into his office.

'You just _love_ to give him a hard time, don't you?' Kathy remarked.

'Always.'

With that, Cordy unfurled herself from her chair and went to the bathroom. Closing the door, she leaned against the door, resting her burning forehead against the cool wood. This brave front was sapping all the energy out of her.

Her headaches were lasting longer and becoming more painful with every vision. Refusing to let Angel or any of the others realise how much pain she was in was becoming a full-time job in itself. She was constantly cracking jokes, teasing Angel and Wesley, anything to appear like the old Cordelia. But she didn't know how much longer she could keep it up.

Reaching into her purse, she withdrew a small bottle of pills. Shaking four out, she washed them down with water from the faucet. She sat down on the toilet seat, overcome with yet another spasm of pain through her head, and fought off the nausea that came with it.

Not for the first time, she also fought off the thought that the visions just might be killing her.


	3. Distractions

_Well, I'm back from my trip and raring to go. Finally, some action in this chapter (I know it's been sorely lacking from the last two chapters, but I promise there will be some more in chapters to come…). I also wanted to deal with the concept of Wicca/Witchcraft in this chapter. As a practicing Wicca myself, I wanted to strike a balance between the religion of Wicca and magic/witchcraft as it is so brilliantly portrayed on this show and others (there's a shameless reference to Charmed coming up). **Disclaimer** – I am not attempting to represent the craft of Wicca realistically in this story (although some of it may be reasonably accurate); my own practice is personal and private, and any reference to Wicca in this story is for entertainment purposes only…_

_Finally, a request. I'm a bit disturbed by the lack of feedback I'm receiving for this story. Is it THAT bad? If you don't like it, let me know where I'm going wrong. If you do like it, **please** let me know. I'm pouring a lot of heart and soul into these stories and it's a bit disheartening not to get any feedback. Well, that's enough shameless plugging from me for one day… On with chapter 3…_

* * *

Half an hour had passed before Cordelia felt well enough to leave the bathroom. She figured that with Wes and Gunn gone, Kathy researching and Angel in his office, no one would notice her absence. She figured wrong. 

As she was sneaking back to her desk, she ran headlong into Angel, who had been waiting for her.

'Everything okay?'

'Sure,' Cordy replied. 'Why wouldn't it be?'

'Maybe because you've been in the bathroom for thirty minutes,' Angel said with concern.

Cordelia shrugged and slipped passed him to sit at her desk. 'What a girl does on her bathroom break is her own business.'

'They're getting worse, aren't they?'

'My bathroom breaks?'

'Cordy,' Angel replied impatiently. 'I'm talking about the headaches. I know you've beenhiding how much pain you're in.'

'That's not… I'm fine,' she insisted. Angel didn't believe her.

'Come on Cordy. Talk to me.'

Cordelia looked at Angel's concerned and unwavering face and sighed. 'Okay, okay, so I might bea _tad_ more headachy than before. But it's nothing to worry about. I'll be fine.'

Angel wasn't convinced. 'Maybe… maybe we should get you checked out.'

Cordy shot him a look of incredulity. 'Like by a doctor? What are we gonna say? My mystical visions sent by a higher power are giving me migraines?'

'I was thinking more along the lines of a mystical check up. Maybe the Host at Caritas…'

'Maybe,' she replied. Off his impatient look; she went on, 'I'll think about it. In the meantime, we have a case that needs our attention.'

'Cordy…'

She cut him off. 'I appreciate you being worried about me. Really.'

She turned her attention to her computer screen, her fingers once more dancing on the keyboard in her search for information. Angel watched her for a minute and she ignored him. _Damn, this woman is stubborn, _he thought. Reaching out a hand, he laid it under her chin and turned her face towards him. She looked at him,a little surprised that he would initiate physical contact like this.

Making her look him in the eyes, he said, 'Promise me that you'll let me know if they get any worse. Andwhen this case is over, we'll go see the Host.'

Cordy tried in vain to turn her surprised look into one of defiance. Failing miserably, she decided to give in instead. 'Fine. I promise. Now, can we get back to work?'

Releasing her, he nodded and returned to his office. Cordelia stared after him for a minute. _Sometimes, I just can't figure that manpire out_, she thought as she returned her attention to the task at hand.

* * *

Wesley's eyes scanned the rows and rows of books with a look of appreciation. Seldom did he come across a collection of books that rivalled his own. One such collection resided on Melissa Simpson's bookshelves. Numerous rare texts line the shelves, most of them relating to magic, the spiritual realm and shamanism in its various forms. His eyes came to rest on a particularly old and rare book about African Shaman ceremonies and beliefs. He had read about this text, but had never physically seen a copy. Just as his hand was reaching for it, Gunn called his name. 

'Found something you might be interested in,' Gunn was saying. 'Melissa's Book of Shadows.'

'I think it is now safe to assume that Melissa was indeed a witch,' Wesley commented, going over to view the text that Gunn was leafing through.

Gently turning each page, he saw that in the early part of the book, Melissa had recorded the Wiccan Rede, along with Esbat and Sabbat rituals, prayers and incantations, various potions and other items of coven craft. In the later pages, he was startled to find numerous references to demons and other personifications of evil.

'We sure this girl's name was Simpson and not Halliwell?' Gunn quipped.

'This is highly unusual,' Wesley commented. 'The initial part of the book suggests that Melissa was a Wicca in the religious sense. However, the later chapters which contain references to various demons, suggests otherwise.'

Off Gunn's querying look, Wesley continued, 'Magical or supernatural witches have usually been exposed to demons at some point and are aware of their existence. In many cases, they help in the fight to bring down demon kind.'

'Like our girl, Kathy. And Willow and Tara,' Gunn interjected.

'Precisely,' Wesley agreed. 'However, for the purely religious Wicca, it is a religion based on nature, not the supernatural. Any magic done is ceremonial or worship based, and while it may enact personal change, it's certainly not used to fend off demons. In fact, as there is no devil in Wiccan canon, demons normally would have no place in a witch's Book of Shadows.'

'But, Melissa knows about demons. Her book is full of them.'

'Yes. It would seem that she is indeed aware of their existence,' Wesley acknowledged. 'We should probably bring this book back with us to the hotel so I can make a closer study of it. It may hold some reference to who or what attacked her.'

He had picked the book up off the table and turned towards the door when the first robed figure attacked.

* * *

Kathy pressed her fingers tight against her eyes, making her vision momentarily go black. Her handwriting swam before her on the page.She had been staring intently atthe same page inthe notebook for hours, trying to make sense of her translation. Beside her notebook lay Angel's sketch and an old book she was using as a reference. She turned a page in the ancient text and refocused her eyes. Spotting something, she double checked her notes. 

'Hmm. Interesting,' she said to no one in particular. Cordelia was scrolling through various websites on her computer, looking for any mention of La Inquisición de la más Pura Palabra. Angel was leafing through books, on the same quest. They both looked up as Kathy spoke.

'Have you translated it?' Cordy wanted to know.

'Maybe,' Kathy replied, not looking up from her work. 'Give me a minute to verify.'

Angel got up from his chair and moved to the table Kathy was sitting at. He stood behind her, watching as she scribbled something down in her notebook.

'You know, I used to hate it when the teacher stood over me at school,' Kathy commented wryly, still not looking up, but smiling to herself.

Angel looked sheepish. 'Sorry.'

'It's okay,' Kathy replied, giving him her eyes. 'I think I'm done.'

She pushed her notebook towards him so he could read her transcription. Cordelia joined them to see it too.

_The Soul must be purified,_

_Redeemed in the eyes of the Lord._

_I sacrifice this creature of evil_

_In the name of ?_

_The Truth, the Word_

_Will wash over you and through you,_

_Burning the magic from your wretched body_

_In the name of the most pure Word.  
_

'Heavy stuff,' Cordy commented. 'What is it? Some kind of spell?'

Kathy shook her head. 'I doubt it. More like a prayer.'

Angel pointed to the row of question marks on the fourth line. 'What about this? In whose name is the sacrifice taking place?'

'I honestly don't know,' Kathy replied. 'That's the only word I couldn't find any reference to anywhere. It doesn't seem to be part of the same language, and I don't know which dialect it comes from.'

'_Doodheks_,' Cordelia read the original transcript. 'Never heard of it. Maybe Wesley will have an idea.'

'I let him have a look when he gets back,' Kathy replied.

'Well, I for one think our progress deserves a cup of coffee and a donut,' Cordy suggested, making her way over to the snack table.

Angel was looking at Kathy's translation again when he heard the coffee pot shatter on the floor and Cordelia scream. He turned and, with his vampire speed, managed to catch her before she hit the floor. Her body convulsed as a new vision invaded her mind.

_So much pain. So much blood. Robed shadows gathered round a writhing figure on the floor as her body was tortured past endurance. Words. So many words in a strange language, carved with an ornate dagger. A girl screamed, over and over._

It took a while for Cordelia to realise that the voice that screamed was her own. Angel held her as she shook on the floor, her screaming replaced now with dry, heaving sobs.

'It was the same as before, Angel,' Cordy gasped. 'She's in so much pain. There are cloaked figures standing around while he does it. They're, they're at her house…' Cordelia closed her eyes, trying to visualise the house she had seen in her mind. '2137 West Broad Street.'

Angel tried to help her up, but Cordelia shook her head. 'Go!'

Angel looked at Kathy, silently asking her to take care of the distraught seer. Kathy obliged by kneeling closer to Cordy, placing a comforting hand on her shaking arm. Angel got his feet and sped out of the building.

Choking back her tears, Cordelia cradled her head in her hands. Despair filled her voice when she said, 'He's going to be too late.'

* * *

Barely keeping on his feet, Wesley's struggled to focus his eyes after the blow he had received to his head. Looking around the room, he was able to register the sight of Gunn fighting two robed figures before his own assailant attacked again. The second blow knocked him backwards, over a low coffee table. Without pausing to think, he reached inside his jacket as the figure came at him once more. With an economy of movement, he plunged his dagger into his attacker's chest and shoved him to the floor. 

The two figures that Gunn was fighting were down with their Kung Fu moves. But Gunn had some moves of his own. Fending off a roundhouse kick from one of them, he landed a crushing blow to the second guy's jaw. Swinging around, he grabbed a large candle stick that resided by the fireplace and swung it at the first guy in one, smooth motion, catching him across the throat and sending him crashing to the ground. _One down_, though Gunn as she turned his attention to the other one, who had recovered and was coming at Gunn again.

Wesley got to his feet and was about to give Gunn a hand with his remaining attacker when movement near the door caught his eye. Turning, he saw a fourth cloaked figure grab a book from the shelves and run for the door. Calling out, Wesley pursued. But when he reached the top of the stairs seconds later, the thief had vanished. Wesley returned to the interior of the apartment in time to see Gunn knock his final opponent out cold.

'Well, that was too _damn_ easy,' Gunn commented, clearly pleased with his performance.

'I think that was merely a distraction,' Wesley told him, moving to the bookcase. The book on African Shamans that he had admired earlier was gone.


	4. Confrontations

_This is a somewhat longer chapter than before. I had trouble with it at first, because it's an exposition chapter, filling in the story, setting some things up for later, etc. It felt kind of ended up being all 'talk talk talk'. But it has to be done... There'll be more action in the next chapter, I promise. As ever, please please please read and review... My morale is counting on your comments..._

* * *

Angel smelled the blood before he even opened the door to the apartment. The smell permeated the air like thick, metallic smog. He already knew that the girl was dead, but when he kicked the door open and was able to cross the threshold, his heart sank. 

She lay there in the centre of the floor, bloodied and beaten. Carvings, similar to those on the first victim, had again been cut into her flesh. From her multiple broken fingernails and the bruises and scratches on her arms, it looked like the girl had put up a hell of a fight. It hadn't done her any good…

Taking out a piece of paper and a pencil, Angel began to sketch the markings. On closer inspection, the words were identical to those carved onto Melissa's body, but these were a lot cruder, as if the writer had a hard time keeping the knife steady. Or keeping the body still.

The realisation hit him like a fist. This victim had been alive and conscious when the words had been carved into her flesh. Partially rolling her over, he saw burns covering her back. Some of them had blistered, meaning that they also had been caused when she was alive.

He didn't have time to fully process this before he noticed several figures in dark robes attempting to sneak up on him. He swung around and kicked one in the head, before fending off a knife attack from another. Two more tried to grab him from behind, but they obviously hadn't counted on him vampiric strength. Spinning around, he knocked one off his feet with a vicious upper cut, while grabbing the arm of the knife-wheedling monk, plunging the knife into the fourth attacker's stomach. With a flick of his wrist, he then broke the monks arm and grabbed the knife from him.

'Is this what you killed her with?' he demanded, his face revealing his true nature.

'We didn't kill her, demon,' the monk replied. 'We are not worth to carry out the purification ritual.'

The first monk charged at Angel again. The vampire replied by grabbing him by the throat and lifting him into the air. 'Well, who did kill her then?'

'Our High Priest,' spluttered the monk Angel had by the neck. 'We are of the order of the Purest Word. He is the Vessel.'

'The Vessel of the Word. He comes with the fire of purification. He will burn the demon out of you, vampire,' declared the monk with the broken arm

With that, he lunged at Angel with a stake he had concealed in his robes. Angel swung the monk he was holding into his path, and the stake plunged into the robed figure's back. Dropping him to the ground, he knocked the other one out cold.

'Sorry. I'm not a big fan of fire.'

* * *

Despite the pain she was in, Cordelia had refused to go home. However, after repeated requests from Kathy, she had finally gone upstairs to one of the hotel's many bedrooms to lie down for a while. Kathy was going over her research once more, turning up nothing on the one word she couldn't translate. Rubbing her eyes, she reached for the phone. Her call was answered on the third ring. 

'Summer's residence.'

'Willow? Hey, it's Kathy.'

The flame-hair witch sounded thrilled to hear from her. 'Kathy! I've been meaning to call you. Me and Tara have discovered this amazing protection spell that we can do with a doll's eye crystal. It's really obscure but…'

Kathy let Willow ramble on happily for a few minutes. In truth, it raised her spirits to hear someone else as passionate about magic talk. Since meeting Willow and Tara a month ago, she had talked to them several times and they had become firm friends. Eventually, Willow realised that she had been doing all the talking and somewhat sheepishly asked Kathy, 'so what's new with you?'

'I actually need a second opinion, Will,' Kathy told her. 'We're in the middle of a tough case, involving an inscription mostly written in a version of Latin. Except for one word that I can't seem to translate.' She went on to explain everything about the case, including the fact that the first victim, at least, appeared to be a witch.

Willow didn't take much convincing. She promised Kathy that she would get straight down to researching, as well as picking Giles' brain on the matter. She told her friend she would call the second she found anything.

'Thanks Will,' Kathy told her sincerely. They said their goodbyes and Kathy was hanging up the phone when Wesley and Gunn walked through the door of the hotel. One look told her that they had met with trouble on their outing.

'You okay, Wes?' she asked the ex-Watcher, noting the purpling bruise on his jaw.

'Never better. Although my face disagrees,' Wesley replied. 'Do the members of la más Pura Palabra wear robes?'

'As far as I know. Why?'

'I think we were just attacked by a group of them. Handy in a fight. For priests.'

'Well, according to my research, they were combat ready,' Kathy told them. 'Trained in a number of different fighting styles. Given their purpose, they weren't exactly the prayer and meditation types.'

'Well, English doesn't think their main aim was to kick our butts,' Gunn told her. 'They were distracting us while one of their friends stole a book from Melissa's collection.'

'A book? What was it?'

'The Lewe Seën text. Ancient Shamanic writings on ceremonies and spells.'

'She had a copy? That's incredibly rare.'

Wesley nodded, taking a much needed seat. 'Obviously someone needs it. Or doesn't want us to have it. Either way…'

'We need to know what's in it,' Kathy finished his thought for him.

Gunn handed her the book he was carrying. 'We brought her Book of Shadows back for you and Wes to have a lookie-loo. Some interesting stuff in here, too.'

'How are you coming with the translation?' Wesley wanted to know, as Kathy began to flip through the pages of the book with a careful reverence.

'It's on the desk. I got it all except one word.'

'Doodheks,' Wesley said, reading Kathy's precise handwriting. 'Something about it is familiar. I'll see if I can turn up anything.'

'And I'll start going through Melissa's book,' Kathy replied, moving back to the desk she had been working at previously and picking up her notepad.

'And I'll…' Gunn picked up a book and set it right back down again. 'I hate research, so I'll hit the street. See if I can find out where these monk guys are hanging out.'

'Check in with us if you find anything,' Wesley told him. 'Don't go in alone. We don't know how many of them there will be.'

'No problem. Catch you later,' he replied as he grabbed a weapon and headed out.

'What do you think?' Wesley asked Kathy, who was clearly engrossed in what she was reading.

'I think this girl was the real deal. She was a true believer and practitioner, who had a lot of power behind her. Some of the spells in here are intense to say the least.'

'Do you find her Book of Shadows unusual at all?'

'Similar to mine,' Kathy commented. 'Although she was of a different lineage. There's a heavy Ancient Greek and Egyptian influence to the spells and rituals. My own is influenced by the Celtic-European lineage of Wicca. And she obviously has seen some action. Your everyday Wicca doesn't have some much information about demons in her book.'

'Maybe someone killed her because she knew something? Or had some kind of power or ability that a demon didn't want her to use?'

'Maybe,' Kathy didn't sound sure. 'But if you want to take someone out, you take them out. Quick, clean, no mess no fuss. This girl, and the other one, they were killed in a ritualistic fashion. You don't do that unless it serves a higher purpose.'

'The other one?' Wesley asked. 'There's been another murder?'

Kathy had finished telling Wesley about Cordelia's latest vision when the sound of the front door opening made them both turn around. Angel strode into the hotel looking thoroughly pissed off. At Kathy's expectant look, he shook his head.

'I was too late.'

* * *

While Wesley went to work translating, Angel led Kathy into his office. She could tell that more was worrying him than just these cases. 

'How's Cordy?' he asked, confirming her suspicions.

'Tired. Headachy. She's gone upstairs to lie down.'

'She didn't go home?' he asked, his voice rising slightly.

'Don't go getting angry with me. That girl is stubborn.'

Angel shook his head and almost smiled. 'Don't I know it.' He sighed as he sat down. 'I'm worried about her.'

Kathy nodded in agreement. 'I know. So am I. The visions are really starting to take a toll.'

'Is there anything we can do?'

'I don't know, Angel,' she told him. Kathy had been pondering this, even before the latest vision. She had come up with a few ideas, each more dangerous than the last. 'There are a few spells that might help, for a while. But short of having the visions removed, I don't think there's a permanent solution.'

'What kind of spells?' Angel looked worried. 'And why do I get the feeling that they're dangerous?'

'Because they are,' Kathy told him truthfully. 'Anything I can come up with involves tapping into Cordy's subconscious, tapping into her connection with the Powers. It's a very delicate process. It might help ease the pain for a while. It might stop the pain altogether. But it might send her into a permanent catatonic state.'

'That's a little more dangerous than I had in mind,' Angel paused, feeling so very tired and sick to his stomach with worry. He couldn't bear seeing Cordelia suffering like this. The visions had worsened considerably in the past few months. Or had it been going on longer than that. Guilt stung him. He had been so wrapped up in Darla's reappearance and subsequence re-siring by Drusilla, he had gone for months without paying attention to Cordelia. Had the visions been hurting her this badly for longer than he thought?

'You really care about her, don't you?' Kathy's voice broke into his thoughts.

Angel hesitated before answering. He had given the matter a lot of thought recently, but had never talked about it to anyone. It was a mark of his growing affection and trust for Kathy that he considered revealing at least some of his feelings on the matter of Cordelia Chase.

'You should have met her a couple of years ago,' he told his sister, smiling at the memory. 'She seemed to be this vapid, spoiled little rich girl who thought the whole world revolved around her. But even then… man was she brave. She had no training, no special powers and yet I saw her fight in a bunch of battles in Sunnydale. And then she came here. She'd lost everything, but she still carried herself the way she used to, like Queen C.'

'What changed?' Kathy asked him, noting how Angel's face softened when talking about Cordelia.

'I don't know. I don't think it was one thing. She's always had this way of doing something for you, really selflessly, but making it look like there's something in it for her. She made me start up this business, made me start connecting again and passed it off like she just needed a job. But the biggest change probably came when Vocah turned the visions against her.'

Angel closed his eyes, remembering the events of that time. He had never been so frightened, seeing Cordelia lying in that hospital bed, writhing from the agony caused by the mind-ripping visions she was receiving. His non-beating heart had broken seeing her like that. And when she woke up, she was changed, haunted, forever. She had not only seen the pain that was in the world. She had felt it. For her, there was no going back.

'The moment she finally understood what the mission was all about,' Kathy commented, as if reading his mind. Off his look, she went on, 'She told me what happened. She called it her 'wake-up call'.'

'I don't want her going through anything like that again. If there's anything you can do…'

'I'll try and work out the kinks in the spell,' Kathy told him. 'In the meantime, there's are other ways; meditation, herbs, crystals. They might easy the headaches for a while. Until we see if we can find a more permanent solution.'

'And if we can't? How difficult would it be to remove the visions altogether?'

'You're not taking my visions!' an angry voice told them. Angel and Kathy looked up to see Cordelia in the doorway, glaring furiously at both of them. 'Having a nice little chat about my well being, were you?'

'Cordy,' Angel began, but Cordelia cut him off.

'These visions are _mine_ Angel. They're part of the mission. They're _my_ mission. You can't strip me of them.'

Kathy stood up. 'Cordy, we weren't planning on striping your visions. We want to find a way to ease the suffering that comes with them. Angel was just considering the worst-case scenario.'

'I know exactly what he was doing,' Cordelia replied. She tore her angry eyes off the vampire's repentant face and looked at the witch. 'Kathy, can you give us a minute.'

'Sure,' Kathy replied, leaving the room and shutting the door behind her.

'Cordy, I know what you heard but…'

'Angel, you have to stop trying to protect me. I'm a big girl,' Cordy started, her voice firm, but the lid temporarily on her anger. She knew the real motivation behind his words and, although she was pissed that he would even consider what he had considered, she couldn't stay mad at him over it. 'You have to stop feeling responsible for all of this.'

'I _am _responsible, Cordy. It's my fault you have the visions in the first place, and…'

'Doyle gave them to me,' she replied emphatically, taking Kathy's recently vacated chair. 'They were his parting gift, not only to me, but to you. You need to have an open line of communication with the Powers.'

'He wouldn't have _had_ to give you them if…' Angel stopped mid-sentence, unable to admit to her what he had felt all along.

'You still blame yourself for his death.' It wasn't a question. She had long sensed the guilt from him, but had never had the courage to bring it up before now. But seeing Doyle's spirit last month had liberated her in a way. She didn't feel as sad about his death anymore. She still missed him terribly, but she understood that it had been Doyle's choice, and that he had died a hero, for the greater good. 'Angel, you didn't _let_ Doyle die. He chose it. He did it so that you could keep on fighting the good fight. You have to let go of this guilt.'

'It just feels like…' Angel sighed, but didn't continue. Cordelia got up from her seat and moved around the desk towards him. Sitting on the edge of the desk, she touched his arm gently.

'What?'

Angel looked at her, and she saw the weight of what he carried. She recognised it because she saw a similar, if somewhat smaller, burden every time she looked in the mirror. 'It just feels like I've been on this particular path less than two years now. And already there are casualties. Doyle, you…'

'Hey, I am very much alive and kicking, thank you very much,' Cordy informed him.

'You're alive, Cordy. But you've been through so much these last few years. Are you telling me you wouldn't like to go back…?'

'To what? The shallow cheerleader I used to be?' Cordelia scoffed. 'Angel, yes I've changed. Yes, the visions have altered me. For the better. Would I like to get rid of the head-splitting pain? You betcha. Would I like to have more time to go shoe shopping? Sure. But would I give the visions up? No way. They're part of who I am now. It'd be like taking away my ability to accessorize.'

Angel smile in spite of himself. 'Kathy thinks she might know a way to help with the headaches. She still has a few… kinks to work out. But in the meantime, how about talking to her about some herbs or meditation or something?'

'Will it stop you from worrying?'

'No.'

'Will it get you off my case at least?'

'Maybe… Temporarily.'

Cordy sighed and stood up. 'Guess I'd better go talk to your little sister then.'

'Thank you.'

'But first we'd better get back to the case.'

Angel smiled as he got up to follow her from the room. 'You've got a one track mind, Cordy.'

* * *

Angel briefed the team about the latest murder, including the chilling detail that the victim had been alive when the cutting had begun, and that torture had been involved. He had also managed to find out the victim's name from her driver's license – Denise Kaye. Cordy immediately jumped online to try and find some information on the girl. 

'The monk guys that showed up talked about their leader. The Vessel, they called him. The Vessel of the Word. Said he was the one who killed the girls.'

'Some kind of high-priest for the order?' Wesley speculated.

'Guys?' Cordy said from behind her computer. 'There was a missing person's report issued for Denise Kaye. Yesterday. She'd already been missing for 24 hours.'

'Missing?' Kathy asked. 'But she was murdered in her own apartment.'

'So either her captors took her back there, or she escaped and they followed her,' Wesley pondered the new information. 'Cordelia? Check on missing person's reports for Melissa Simpson. If she was kept for a period of time also, it may have something to do with the murder ritual.'

'Okay…' her fingers tapped on the keys for a moment. 'Here's something. Some journalist managed to score an interview with one of Melissa's neighbours. Apparently her store wasn't open for two days prior to the murder.'

'That's our pattern,' Kathy said. 'Whatever they're doing to them takes two days.'

'Which means, they might have a girl right now,' Angel said. 'And we don't know where. Gunn, did you get any information from your sources on where these guys might be hiding out?'

Gunn shook his head. He had arrived back in time for the meeting with very little information. The sources he had managed to corner knew next to nothing about the monks, and the little they knew was sketchy at best. He had been given at least 4 possible locations for their headquarters.

Wesley had faired no better. He had been unable to locate any information about the mystery word, and had begun instead trying to find information on the book that had been stolen from Melissa's apartment. So far he had only uncovered very general descriptions of its contents.

'From what I can tell, the book that was stolen contains details of Shamanic rituals and spells. It's called the Lewe Seën text. Translated, it means the Blessed Life…' Wesley trailed off, suddenly thinking of something. ''Lewe', the African word for Life and 'Seën', the word for Bless…' he muttered to himself, grabbing a book from the vast pile on the table and leafing through it. 'Of course, why didn't I think of it before…'

'Care to share, Wes?' Cordy asked expectantly.

'The word we've been trying to translate. _Doodheks. _It's not Latin or anything like that. It's of African origin. An old Shamanic word. 'Dood' meaning death and 'Heks' meaning witch.'

'Witch Death?' Kathy asked. 'But why would a religious order opposed to all forms of magic and paganism be using an ancient Shamanic word in a prayer?'

'It isn't just a word,' Wesley answered. 'Doodheks is a demon. And a vicious one at that.'

'So the order of the Purest Word has done a deal with a demon,' Angel said.

'Hasn't everyone one at some point?' Cordelia commented wryly.

* * *

_To Be Continued..._


	5. Vision Quest

_A/N: First of all, big shout out to _**rcaqua**, _who became the first person to review 'Belief' - **thank you thank you!** At least someone is reading this... The last chapter was a little heavy on talk, and this one starts out the same but I promise, there is quite a bit of action coming up in this chapter, with a lot more on the way,so take heart! So please read and review - if you don't like it, let me know why, and if you do like it - **please leave a review! Enjoy...**_

* * *

'So how are you doing?' Kathy asked the Seer a little later. After Angel had spent half an hour shooting pointed looks at his sister, she finally got the hint and decided to have a talk with Cordelia.

'I'm okay,' Cordy answered, only partly lying. True, the headache had now subsided to a dull ache, but internally she was still on edge. The prospect of having another vision now terrified her as much as never having another one. As much as she didn't want Angel and the others to worry, she knew that they had good cause to. The visions were getting steadily worse and she couldn't shake the feeling that they might end up doing permanent damage.

'I take it Angel talked to you about trying to find a way to ease the headaches?'

'Yeah. He said you were working on it,' Cordy replied. She shot the witch a hopeful look. 'So? Come up with anything yet?'

'Yeah. How about some tea?' Kathy replied with a smile.

'_Tea_?' Cordelia was incredulous. 'I'm having my skull split open on an almost daily basis with these mind-ripping, soul-crushing, un-freaking-believably painful visions, and you think _tea's_ gonna help? Are you friends with Giles, by any chance?'

Kathy smiled in reply as she switched on the kettle and took some herbs from her bag. 'It's not your standard English blend,' she told the irate Seer.

As the water heated up, she poured a combination of the herbs into a mug, and then poured the boiling water in on top of them. The smell it produced reminded Cordy of something between freshly cut grass and mud. She wrinkled her nose.

'What is it?'

'An old herbal remedy,' the witch replied, taking a vial of amber-colour liquid from her pocket and pouring a few drops into the tea before handing the cup to Cordelia.

'Did you just make it Irish?' Cordelia asked wryly, nodding at the vial.

Kathy narrowed her eyes in mock displeasure. 'You know, we Irish don't put whiskey into everything Yankee. It's a potion, brewed by my own fair hand, to give it that extra kick.'

Cordy lifted the mug to her nose and took a sniff. It didn't smell _that_ bad, and it looked just like any other herbal tea. Hesitantly, she took a small sip. Instantly, the warmth spread through her and the pressure that seemed permanently present in her head eased slightly. The taste was nothing to write home about, but she couldn't deny its positive effect. She took another, larger, sip.

'See. Not so bad. For a second there, I thought you didn't trust me,' Kathy said.

'So this'll stop the vision headaches?' Cordy asked hopefully.

Kathy shook her head sadly. 'If you take these herbs a couple times a day, carry around the crystals I'm going to give you and practise some of the meditation techniques I'm going to teach you, it'll help with the pain. Hopefully, the headaches will last for a shorter time and leave you less drained. But…' she trailed off after seeing the crestfallen look on Cordelia's face.

'But it won't stop the headaches,' Cordelia finished for her, disappointed and unable to hide it.

'I'm afraid not. That'll take more drastic action.'

'Like what?'

Kathy shook her head again. 'No. We'll try this first and see if it helps and then we'll consider other options. When I've worked out the kinks.' At Cordelia's querying look, she went on, 'at the moment, the spell that might help the most is too dangerous to work. It could leave you in a coma or, you know, kill you.'

'Ah, one of _those _kinks,' Cordy replied. 'Gotcha. We'll try this first then.'

* * *

Angel sat in his office with Wesley and Gunn, talking battle strategies. 'So what do we know?' 

Wesley spoke up. 'Well, from the research myself and Kathy have done, this particular group is known for its viciousness. They are single-minded and utterly fanatical.'

'Didn't seem that vicious when we were kicking their ass,' Gunn remarked.

'Those were only _three_ monks, Gunn. I imagine we will face a great deal more than that before the end.'

'Wesley's right,' Angel said. 'I've faced an organisation like this before. A faction of Inquisitore founded by an Italian priest named Rivalli. Individually, they're not much of a threat. But collectively, between their religious fervor and their training, we might have a problem.'

'Add into the mix the fact that they may have made a pact with a demon, and we _certainly_ have a problem,' Wesley added.

'I don't get that,' Cordelia said as she and Kathy entered the office. Angel looked at his sister, and she gave a small nod. 'I mean, aren't they meant to be all 'demon's bad, religion good'? What's the deal with them joining up with one?'

'I wish I knew,' Wesley replied. 'But it doesn't bode well. Doodheks is known for instilling viciousness and blind fanaticism in his worshippers. And in a group that already is fanatical… He was behind some of the bloodiest witch-trials in history, turning mild and peace-loving villages into fanatical killers.'

'Wait, wasn't that Hansel and Gretel demon responsible for the witch-hunts?' Cordelia asked. 'The one that struck in Sunnydale a couple years ago?'

'Well, yes,' Wesley replied. 'But only the ones in Northern Europe and America. There are many demons who feed by fostering persecution and hatred among mortal men. Doodheks is one of the worst, growing in strength each time he is fed a sacrifice and distilling some of that strength to his followers.'

'From what we can tell,' Kathy said, 'Doodheks prefers witches as his source of… well, nourishment, for the lack of a better word. He incites his followers to go on a killing spree and feeds off the magical energy that's dispersed after the witch is dead. I think the words that are carved onto his victims are a way of focusing that energy towards him.'

'So, if he's just fed twice in the last couple of days, he's got some major mojo working for him?' asked Gunn.

'Precisely,' Wesley replied.

'But why doesn't this Doo-hicky guy just kill the witches himself? What does he need the monks for?' Cordelia wanted to know.

'He's non-corporeal.'

'Like the First?' Cordelia gulped visibly.

'Not exactly,' Wesley went on. 'His body was removed from him in the 11th century. It happened to a lot of demons during the middle ages to try to end their reigns of terror. He is pure essence now. But the worry is, if he gets enough power…'

'He'll get re-integrated with his body,' Kathy finished for him.

'Which means we need to stop this before anyone else dies,' Angel told them.

* * *

The chamber was lit only by a flickering torch. Victor let his eyes adjust to the gloom. He was, after all, accustomed to it and besides, he was illuminated by the word and therefore felt no need for additional light. 

'Victor,' a voice said softly behind him. 'I have a new soul for you to save.'

'I have a sacrifice for you now, my Lord,' Victor replied. 'She is sinful and unrepentant, but by tonight, she will be filled with your word and her sins washed away with her blood.'

'This new soul is strong,' the voice spoke again. 'She is a much more powerful witch than the others. She spreads her evil like a sickness, corrupting all around her. And she consorts with unclean creatures. This creature of evil must be purified soon, before she contaminates all those in her path.'

Victor bowed his head. 'I will retrieve her tonight then, my Lord. And once the girl who is currently in my care is dead, I will begin the purification of her soul. Where will I find her?'

'The Hyperion Hotel,' Doodheks smiled. He was about to get a serious power boost.

* * *

The men folk had gone out on patrol, trying to track down the murderous monks, leaving Kathy and Cordelia behind to work on their other problem. Kathy had set up a circle of crystals and was now explaining the process to a somewhat skeptical Seer. 

'The quartz is to channel the healing process,' Kathy told her, pointing to each type of crystal in turn. 'The sodalite calms and clears the mind. And the agate helps ease pain and promote healing.' She took one look at Cordelia's face and sighed. 'And you're not buying any of this, are you?'

'It's not that I don't buy it,' Cordy explained, trying to sound open minded. 'It's just that it all seems a little… hoaky to me.'

'Cordy, you live with a ghost, work for a vampire and fight demons on a regular basis, and _this_ sounds hoaky?'

Cordelia shrugged. 'I have to be skeptical about _something_.'

'Well, trust me on this. Please. After all, you saw how crystals helped me when I was hurt last month.'

'I know, I know,' Cordy conceded. 'So what do I do?'

'Just lie down in the centre of the circle and close your eyes,' Kathy replied, lighting the candles she had set around the circle. When Cordy had positioned her self in the centre, and closed her eyes, Kathy sat cross-legged on the floor near her and began to talk her through the meditation. 'Now, concentrate on your breathing. Imagine you are breathing in pure energy. Let it flow right through your body with every breath.'

Cordelia took a deep breath; let it out, then started giggling.

'_Cordy_.'

'Sorry,' Cordelia replied, clearing her throat and controlling herself. 'Okay, breathing. Pure energy. What's next?'

'Every time you breathe in; imagine you're breathing in positive energy. When you breathe out, you're breathing out the negative energy from within. Try to visualize it.'

Cordy started to concentrate and, after a minute or two, actually felt _something_ happening. She just wasn't sure what. She started to feel – lighter. Like a weight that had been pressing down on her was being gradually lifted.

Kathy had begun to chant softly, and Cordy felt the witch's fingers gently rest on either side of her head at the temples. Trusting her completely, she didn't open her eyes, but continued concentrating. The lightness she had sensed before was becoming more pronounced, spreading through her like clouds of weightlessness. Cordy allowed herself to drift, feeling all the tension leaving her body.

Kathy was also concentrating. She hadn't given Cordelia the full low-down on what she was going to do. Tapping into someone else's mind was hard enough, but when they knew it was coming, they tended to put up unconscious barriers. Kathy wanted the Seer relaxed and unawares.

Once in Cordelia's mind, she took a good look around, so to speak. Mind reading wasn't like they showed it in the movies. A person's mind wasn't an open book. It was more like a series of images, impressions, which she could interpret. What she needed to find was the pathway through which the Powers were communicating with Cordelia. Then she could see if it could be altered so that it would be a less painful, but still effective route for communication.

'_There are a lot of images of Angel in here_,' was Kathy's first impression. It was only natural that Cordelia would be thinking about him, but… '_No,'_ Kathy chided herself. _'Not any of my business.'_ Instead, she kept looking for what she was there for.

Cordelia had never felt so relaxed in her whole life. Well, maybe that time her Mom had taken her to that Swiss health spa – one of their few mother-daughter moments… Suddenly, the relaxation she had begun to experience was replaced by something much more familiar. Shooting pains went through her skull, traveling down through her body like an electric shock.

* * *

Angel, Wesley and Gunn had driven round and round the dark streets looking for something, anything that might be a lead. They started from the first known scene, the warehouse where Angel had found the first victim, and worked their way out. Getting no where fast in the car, they had parked and begun to pound the pavement in the warehouse district, hoping to get lucky. 

What they weren't hoping for was to get ambushed.

Turning down a darker than usual alleyway, Angel stopped, his vampire senses picking up on something. Holding up a hand to signal for quiet, he listened. He heard the arrow coming before he saw it, and pushed Wesley out of the way just in time, before the ex-Watcher became a shish kebab.

Suddenly, they were surrounded, twenty dark-robbed figures appearing from the shadows, all heavily armed.

'Okay. That's a little more than three,' Gunn said, hefting his weapon. 'I hate it when you're right, English.'

'As do I,' Wesley replied. 'On this occasion, at any rate.'

'You guys take the 10 on the right, I'll take the 10 on the left,' Angel told them. After all, they were just monks. How hard could it be…?

Before Angel could charge at them, a dozen more arrows flew towards him. He dodged all but two of them. One hit him in the shoulder, the other in the upper leg.

'Okay, ow!' he exclaimed, looking down at the arrow protruding from his thigh. 'That _could_ have been nasty.'

Yanking the arrow out of his leg, he moved forward with vampiric speed and plunged it into the nearest monk. The monk smiled as he fell to the ground, dead. He had died for the cause. He was happy in death. _Damn fanatics_, Angel thought.

Chaos broke out around him, the monks all attacking as one. Fending off blow after blow, Angel tried to get near to the wall, where he could keep his attackers on one side of him only. He sliced his sword through one, then another, but they kept coming. One pulled out a stake and charged at him.

Wesley and Gunn were fighting back to back. Already Wesley's arms were tiring. He was a relatively accomplished swordsman, having studied fencing at private school and all forms of sword-play during his Watcher training, but he had never had to parry so many blows from so many attackers at once. Gunn was putting his street fighting experience to good use, combining his hacking action with his trust axe with a combination of roundhouses and upper cuts. But none of it fazed the attacking monks.

Spinning out of the charging monk's path at the last moment, Angel swung his sword round and decapitated him. Sensing another body coming towards him, he sidestepped and landed a punch to the attacker's jaw, sending him flying into the monk behind. His sword swooshed up to meet that of yet another attacker. Staving for a moment, he kicked out at another monk, keeping him at bay long enough to parry a blow, and plunge his sword into his opponent's chest.

Angel was sure he'd taken care of his ten opponents by now. But their numbers kept getting replaced. How many monks were hiding in the alleyway, waiting to surge forward? In the chaos, Angel couldn't tell, but he sensed that this could go on of a while.

Wesley's arm felt like it was on fire. The sword had sliced through both his jacket and shirt, and into his skin. He didn't think it was too deep, but he couldn't tell for sure. Trying to ignore the pain, he fought on. After all, these monks didn't look the type to allow for a time-out.

Gunn had lost track of how many he'd killed, and now two bad-asses were coming at him, both armed with what looked like the freaky mace Gogo used in Kill Bill. He hoped these ones didn't have retractable blades attached too. Both swung at him at the same time, and he ducked just in time. The first guy took another swing at him and this time, Gunn was ready for him. Using his axe like a baseball bat, he hit the mace as it flew towards him, straight into the chest of the second monk. Unfazed, the first monk swung again. This time he connected with Gunn's stomach, sending the young street fighters sprawling across the alley. Without pausing to think, to acknowledge the not small amount of pain he was in, he tumbled over and used the momentum to get back to his feet. The mace-wielding monk had been joined by three others.

Angel looked over the shoulder of the monk he had just impaled on his sword and saw that his comrades were in trouble. Gunn was cornered by three angry-looking monks, while Wesley was obviously injured and fighting two at once. Flinging his latest defeated opponent another two approaching monks, he moved to help his friends. He was stopped by a voice that echoed through the dark.

'Enough!'

At the sound of the voice, the monks pulled back to form one group. Out of the shadows behind them, a new player appeared.

'Are you this great leader your buddies have been talking about?' Angel asked. 'The Vessel?'

'No, vampire. I am merely his messenger.'

'What? We didn't rate an appearance from the head cheese? I'm insulted,' Angel quipped. He was thrown by the fact that the monks had stopped attacking and wondered what the angle was. Were they calling an end to the fight, or planning something else?

'I'm afraid he's otherwise engaged,' the messenger replied. 'He's been detained with a new soul that needs to be purified. Actually, you might know her.'

* * *

Kathy felt the vision coming too. Not only that. She saw it. Still tapped into Cordy's mind, she experienced the full force of the vision. 

_Another girl, bound, tortured. A warehouse, similar to where the first girl had been found. Figures in cloaks, chanting. A knife. Words etched in flesh. Blood. So much blood. A flash of steel as the knife cut the girl's throat. A scream. A piercing scream filled the warehouse. Kathy saw herself, bound, watching helpless as they killed the girl. All she could do was scream…_

Kathy stumbled back, breaking the connection with Cordelia. Dizzy from the shared vision, she had not fully begun to process what she had seen when someone hit her from behind. The last thing she saw before the world went black was Cordy, lying motionless in the centre of the circle.

* * *

_To Be Continued... Next chapter, Kathy's missing, Cordy's unconcious, and Angel's frantic. And a couple of familiar faces from the Hellmouth turn up to lend a helping hand..._


	6. Conflicted

_**A/N: **Blessed be for the easter holidays- I'm getting so much writing done. Not only have I written another chapter of this story, I've started another Angel-fic entitled **'Evermore' **(plug, plug), and completed my latest CSI fic** ('First Date or Second Thoughts'** - plug plug, if you like that sort of thing...) _

_So, now the cross-over can begin in earnest - Willow and Tara make an appearance and Angel has a small freak-attack as the result of the (hopefully temporary...) loss of the two women in his life. But first, some action..._

_Please Read and Review, before I'm forced to end this story in one chapter that'll go something like -_ Fight Fight, almost lose, win the day, save the girl, the end... _No one wants that, do they? Do they?_

_And now on with the show..._

* * *

The realization hit Angel like a fist. 'He's going after Kathy. We need to get back to the hotel,' he said, glancing at Wesley and Gunn, who were flanking him.

'Oh, you're not going anywhere, Vampire,' the messenger told him. The remaining dozen monks surrounding him took up battle positions.

Two of the monks aimed crossbows at the vampire and let the bolts fly at him. Batting one bolt out of the air, Angel grabbed the second one before it imbedded itself in his chest. Without pause, he flung it back towards the monks, impaling one of the archers in the neck.

These guys weren't just threatening him and his crew anymore. They were threatening his sister and Cordelia, who was alone with the witch at the hotel. Angel was now seriously pissed off. As the first wave of monks came at him, he decapitated two of them with a single stroke of his sword. Without slowing down, he stabbed another, and knocked a fourth out cold with one punch.

Gunn took out a monk with his axe, before another kicked it out of his hands. Engaging in hand to hand now, he matched his opponent blow for blow, before delivering a fierce kick that sent the monk flying into a wall. He hadn't even finished sliding to the ground before another robed figure had taken his place in the fight with Gunn. Dodging an attack from the new monk's weapon and rolling to the left, Gunn retrieved his axe. He figured he'd need it against the really big broadsword the monk was packing.

Underestimating Wesley's skill with a blade, the first monk rushed at him, only to be sliced across the chest. The next monk was more cautious, taking time to size up his opponent. Seeing Wesley's injured arm, he attacked from that side. Wesley moved his sword swiftly and blocked the weapon before it connected. Parrying another blow, he delivered one of his own. The monk grinned though the pain and kicked out, connecting with Wesley's leg. Letting a yell out from the pain, Wesley dropped to the ground, and rolled into a better position. Thinking that he'd fallen, the monk moved in for the kill. But Wesley was ready for him, plunging his sword into his opponent's chest.

Angel cut through his final two opponent with relative ease, and turned to confront the messenger. But he had disappeared like a shadow in the night. Turning back to his friends in time to see Gunn slice through the final monk, he started back towards the car.

'Come on,' he told them urgently. 'We need to get back to the hotel.'

* * *

Angel burst through the doors of the hotel, afraid of what he would find on the other side. His worst fears were confirmed when he saw Cordelia, unmoving, lying the centre of the lobby floor. Kathy was nowhere in sight. 

'_Cordy_,' he yelled, racing to her side and scooping her up into his arms. Cradling her gently, he shook her, trying to elicit some sort of response. Her eyes remained firmly closed. Smelling something, he looked down and saw several drops of blood on the tiled floor. It was Kathy's.

Picking Cordelia up, he took her to the couch and laid her gently down on it.

'Oh god, is she…?' Wesley couldn't finish the sentence, afraid of the answer.

Angel shook his head. 'She's alive. But unconscious,' he replied. He looked around the lobby. 'It's a long shot, but can you check the perimeter Gunn? See if you can see what way they went?' With a nod, Gunn ran out of the lobby.

Angel continued to crouch near Cordy, stroking her hair and whispering. 'Wake up, Cor. Come on. Wake up. I need you here.'

Wesley watched the scene, real fear coursing through him. What had happened here? Did the monks simply knock Cordelia out when they took Kathy, or… The prospect sent a chill through him. He knew that Kathy was going to be working with Cordy that night, tapping into her mind to try to ascertain how to alleviate the vision headaches. What if they were in the middle of this when the monks attacked? What if Cordelia's consciousness was now… elsewhere? A ringing telephone interrupted his thought process. He picked it up merely to silence it.

'Angel Investigations,' he said tersely into the receiver. 'Willow, I'm afraid this isn't a good time.'

'Sorry, Wesley, but this is urgent,' Willow replied at the other end. 'I need to talk to Kathy _now_. I've got information on those monks she called me about.'

'I'm afraid Kathy isn't… She called you about the monks?'

'Yep, we've been researching like crazy here. Found out that your first victim, Melissa Simpson, was a customer of the Magic Box. Giles dug up her account. She bought several books and potion ingredients from him in the last few months.'

'What were the books?' Wesley asked. She now had his attention.

'Rhiannon's Grimoire, an almanac, a couple of general spell books and something called the Lewe Seën text, which Giles tells me is about...'

'Shamanic rituals,' Wesley cut her off. He added urgently, 'does Giles have another copy of the text, by any chance?'

''fraid not. But we do happen to have a commentary for it,' Willow replied, before faltering. Wesley didn't sound too good.

'Willow, I really need to see that commentary,' he said in no uncertain terms.

'Wesley? What's wrong?'

'The monks we're after. They've taken Kathy. And Cordy's unconscious. We don't know what's happened to her.'

'How much time do we have,' Willow asked, with concern for both her friends.

'According to the pattern, they keep their victims for two days. Then…'

'I'll be there in a couple of hours,' Willow told him before hanging up and running to find Tara.

* * *

Angel was complete torn. One half of him was desperate to go out and start trying to track his sister. Although he knew that they had around 48 hours before she was killed, he knew that the monks would be spending that time torturing her, and he couldn't bare the thought of Kathy going through that kind of pain. The other half of him didn't want to go anywhere until he knew that Cordelia was okay. So, unable to reconcile his two opposing halves, he paced. 

Cordy had not stirred from her resting place on the lobby's couch for the past hour, and Angel was beginning to fear that this might be more than mere unconsciousness. Wesley had shared his thoughts on the matter with him after getting off the phone with Willow. It might be a mystical coma. She might have been in a deep trance when Kathy had been taken. And without Kathy, they couldn't be sure of getting Cordy back.

Gunn had returned after half an hour of searching the area with nothing positive to report. It was likely that the monks had transported Kathy from the hotel in a vehicle of some kind, but there was no trace of it to follow. After reporting back, he had gone out again, tracking down sources.

'Angel,' Wesley broke the silence that had descended between the two men. 'I know you don't want to leave Cordy, but…'

'I should be out their tracking Kathy,' Angel acknowledged. 'I know Wesley. It's just… I'm afraid to leave her. What if…' He couldn't finish that sentence. _What if she never woke up? What if she slipped away while he was gone?_

'I'll stay with her, Angel,' Wesley reassured him. 'And Willow will be here soon. We'll fix this. Cordy will be up and about, bossing us around in no time.'

Angel's gaze fixed on the unconscious brunette. 'I hope you're right,' he replied softly.

Moving to Cordy's side once more, he stooped down and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead. 'I'll be back soon, Cordy. You just try and wake up. Okay?'

Cordy didn't stir. Taking one last look at her, he turned to Wesley. 'Take care of her,' he told the Englishman, before grabbing some weapons and heading out into the night.

* * *

Water was dripping somewhere, echoing across the large room. As Kathy slowly opened her eyes, she saw the warehouse that had been in Cordy's vision. Groaning, she realized that the back of her head was throbbing. When she tried to move one of her hands up to her head to inspect the damage, the clinking of chains alerted her to the fact that she had been chained to a wall. 

As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, she saw a figure lying on the floor, several feet away from her. The figure had been so still, Kathy almost jumped several feet in the air when it groaned and shifted slightly on the cold, stone floor.

'Hello?' Kathy asked tentatively. She was answered with another groan. 'Hello? My name is Kathy. What's yours?'

The girl on the floor didn't answer, but shifted again, apparently slowly coming to. Kathy tried again. 'Hello?' she said, a little louder this time. 'Can you hear me? My name is Kathy. What's your name?'

The girl's eyes fluttered open slowly. She looked at Kathy, the relief that briefly flashed in her eyes quickly replaced by fear. 'I'm… I'm Ashley,' the girl replied, her voice sounding hoarse and parched.

'Nice to meet you Ashley,' Kathy said, trying to keep her talking. Keep her conscious. She needed information if she was going to get them both out of here. 'How long have you been here?'

Ashley's eyes closed for a moment. Kathy thought she'd slipped back into unconsciousness, when they fluttered open once more. 'I don't know,' she said. 'A day? Maybe two? I lost track.'

Kathy took a closer look at the girl. Blood encrusted her clothes. Her face was battered and bruised. She was sure she saw burns on one of the girl's arms. 'What have they done to you, Ashley?' Kathy said, tears building within her. The closer look had confirmed her fears. This was the girl she saw murdered in the vision she had shared with Cordelia. 'I need you to stay awake, Ashley,' Kathy told her. 'I need you to stay with me. We're going to figure a way out of here, you and I.'

Ashley shook her head, tears running down her battered face. 'No we're not. I saw what they did. I saw it. They killed her. They killed that other girl.'

'Denise?'

'Yes,' Ashley's voice shook with terror. 'They tortured her. And cut her. Then they… they slit her throat.'

'You saw all that?' Kathy's heart broke for the pain this young woman had endured, both physically and mentally.

Ashley couldn't speak. Terror rocked through her, causing her body to shake convulsively. But Kathy saw her nod her head. She closed her eyes, trying to hold back her own tears at the result of this woman's pain and fear. _Please, goddess, don't let the vision come true_, she silently prayed.

* * *

Angel's initial attempts at tracking Kathy turned up a whole lot of nothing. Her scent from the hotel only led him to her apartment, which was several blocks away. Then he decided to get smart, and went back to the warehouse district where he, Wes and Gunn had been ambushed by the monks. Several times, he though he caught her scent, only to lose it moments later. 

Two hours later, he was beginning to get royally pissed off. He could sense something in the area. Something powerfully magical. Whatever it was, it was stopping him from pinpointing where they were keeping Kathy. And it wasn't as though he could search each warehouse individually. Hundreds of the buildings covered a two mile radius. It would take too much time. Time Kathy didn't have.

Acknowledging defeat, he decided to head back to the hotel. They would need magical help to track Kathy down.

* * *

Less than two hours after Angel had left the hotel, two familiar faces came through the front doors of the Hyperion. Getting up from his vigil at Cordelia's side, Wesley smiled in greeting. 

'Willow! Tara! Thank you so much for making the trip,' he said warmly, despite the worry that was still present in his voice. He glanced at his watch. 'Less that three hours from Sunnydale to LA? Must be some kind of record.'

'Well, we kinda put a magical turbo boost on the car,' Willow confessed with a sheepish grin.

'Yeah. We figured time was of the essence,' Tara added.

Willow approached Cordelia's unmoving form. 'How is she?' she asked softly.

'We don't know,' Wesley confessed. 'She hasn't moved since we found her. I've been reading through Kathy's books and I think I've found the meditation technique she was using with Cordy at the time. She was trying to tap into her mind in the hopes of easing the pain Cordelia's been experiencing.'

'From the visions?' Tara asked.

Wesley nodded. 'They've been getting much worse lately,' he told them, holding out the book to Willow. 'I think this is the technique in question.'

Willow read the page of notes, written in Kathy's hand. Tara stood close beside her, also reading the open page. The technique was a straightforward trance in which Kathy could connect with Cordelia's mind and interpret the images she found there.

'I don't understand how this could have happened,' Willow told the ex-Watcher. 'There should have been no danger for Cordy. Unless…' she had a sudden thought. Meeting Tara's eyes, she could tell her lover was having the same idea. 'You said the visions were getting worse? How much worse?'

'Very violent,' Wesley told her. 'The aftermath was lasting a great deal longer that normal.'

'She must have had a vision in the middle of the trance,' Tara said in her soft voice.

'That's the only explanation,' Willow agreed. At Wesley's somewhat confused face, she continued, 'this type of meditation it … it opens the mind up. Which is fine, Cordy would have been all nice and floaty and relaxed. But…'

'But if a vision comes along at the same time, especially a violent one, instead of filtering in through the normal pathway, it rushes in all at once. Disrupts the brainwaves,' Tara continued.

'Think of it like a gate. If you only have the side part open, then there's a filter present. Only one person can get through at the one time, or in this case, one element of the vision at a time. But if the entire gate's open, or worse, if there is no gate at all…'

'Then everything hit Cordy at once,' Wesley began to understand. 'And her mind couldn't take it, so it splintered off from her body?' Willow nodded. Wesley looked down at Cordelia's supine form. It looked like she was only sleeping. 'So, what can we do?'

'Well, we can _try_ and get her back, but…' Willow hesitated. 'We probably won't be able to do it without Kathy. She was the witch working the mojo, so she'll have the best fix on Cordy's psyche. Without her, Cordy might be gone for good.'

'Then we better find Kathy,' Angel's voice said behind them. 'Because I'm not losing either of them.'

* * *

_To Be Continued..._


	7. Game Plan

_A/N: Hope you all had a nice Easter. The distraction of chocolate, combined with a touch of writers block, meant that this chapter took a lot longer than I planned. It's all action (more or less) from here on in, so hopefully there won't be any more delays. Please Read and Review..._

* * *

'How is she? Any change?' Angel wanted to know. 

'None, I'm afraid,' Wesley replied.

Willow stepped forwards to greet Angel. 'Hey there.'

'Willow. Good to see you. Thanks for coming.'

'Hey, you know me. Any excuse to get off of the Hellmouth and visit the big city,' Willow said with a smile.

Angel nodded a hello to Tara, who rewarded him with one of her bright, if somewhat shy, smiles.

'Any luck tracking Kathy, Angel?' Wesley asked.

Angel shook his head. 'I sense something in the warehouse district. Powerful magic, maybe. I think it might have been some kind of concealment spell.'

'Sounds about right,' Willow said. 'If they'd erected a barrier of some kind, you probably wouldn't sense Kathy unless you were standing right on top of her.'

'We could probably counter it, so we can use our own tracking spell to find Kathy,' Tara remarked. 'But first we'll need to know what spell they're using. It could be one of a dozen.'

'What's the best way to find that out?' Angel wanted to know.

'One of us will need to go down there. We should be able to sense what kind of spell it is,' Willow replied. 'Then it's a simple case of researching the right counter-spell.'

Wesley nodded, 'Angel, you could take Willow back to the warehouse district and figure the spell out, while Tara shows me the information she and Willow brought from Sunnydale. I think we're going to need to know what was in the stolen book before we make any rescue attempt. If my theory is correct, the book contains information about the demon Doodheks. Information he obviously did not want us knowing.'

Angel nodded, and then his gaze fell upon Cordelia's slumbering form. 'What about Cordy?' he asked in a soft, worried voice.

'Angel, I don't think there's much we can do right now,' Willow replied. 'It would take someone connected to the Powers that Be, and I don't really have their direct line.'

'Let's concentrate on getting Kathy back, Angel,' Wesley suggested. 'Then we can get Cordy back.'

* * *

Kathy's eyes flew open at the sound of footsteps approaching. She saw Ashley cowering on the floor as if she knew this was it. Knew they were coming for her. Kathy sat up straighter, pooling her energy. She had to _do_ something. She couldn't sit here and watch this young woman die. 

Around a dozen robed monks entered the room, several of them carrying candles, all chanting. At the head of them strode their leader. The confidence and charisma with which he carried himself set him apart from his followers. In different circumstances, Kathy would have scoffed at the fact that he exuded a similar aura to that of a TV Evangelist. But right now, nothing was funny.

Two of the monks grabbed Ashley and pulled her to her feet. Kathy was ready for them. With a squint of her eyes, she sent the two men flying across the room. They hit the wall and slid to the ground, knocked senseless.

She had spent the last twenty minutes of consciousness attempting to unlock her chains magically, but without success. She had come to the conclusion that there must be some kind of spell on the lock. But even without her hands, she knew that she could inflict some damage. She focused another figure that was bearing down on her. In a trice, she had him frozen to the spot. Unfortunately, while concentrating on her most recent victim, she didn't see another monk sneak up on her.

Her first clue was the electricity coursing through her body as he hit her with a tazer. She collapsed, the charge scrambling her brain, rendering her unable to think straight, let alone perform magic.

Somewhere above her she heard someone give the order to _'Put the collar on her'_. She didn't know what that meant until she felt something slip around her neck. The world seemed very far away, muffled, as though someone had wrapped her head in cotton wool. Painful, electrically charged cotton wool.

Ashley's screams brought her back to reality with a thud. Looking up, she saw that they had tied her between two pillars. The head monk was now standing before her, brandishing a knife.

Summoning up her energy once more, she sent some his way. She managed to move him a few feet before the electric charge went off in her new collar, rendering her senseless once more.

'Yes, you might want to refrain from doing any of your parlour tricks, witch,' Victor told her disdainfully. 'It isn't good for your health. And I want you alert for your friend's cleansing.'

Kathy felt someone pull her by the hair, dragging her face upwards so that her eyes met Ashley's. The girl was terrified, her eyes pleading with Kathy to help her.

Turning away from Kathy again, Victor began to chant.

'Vox vocis nex , sono huic veneficus. Defaeco suus animus per vestri incendia. Repleo suus niger pectus pectoris per vestri verum. Vox Deus repleo suus quod damno suus pro infinitio.'

With these words, he began to carve the now chillingly familiar letters into Ashley's skin. The girl cried and screamed, her body writhing, trying to get away from his knife; to now avail. Again and again, Kathy tried to send a spell in his direction, to get him away from his victim, to draw his fire towards her, anything. But every time she tried, an electric shock scrambled her mind, making even the simplest spell impossible. All she could do was watch and pray. She prayed to the goddess to intervene. She prayed that Angel would find them in time.

By the time the last word was written, Ashley had given up screaming. Tears shone on her face, her chest heaved with sobbing, but she knew what came next and she had given in to it. She knew that soon, her suffering would be over. And Kathy's would just be beginning. As if to emphasise that point, Victor glanced over his shoulder at Kathy, and smiled.

Kathy shook her head, wordlessly mouthing a protest she knew would fall on deaf ears. As the blade drew across Ashley's throat and the girl's tear-filled eyes went wide with shock, Kathy screamed.

* * *

Angel had been silent for most of the drive. Willow knew he was worried and longed to find the right words to make him feel better. Nothing appropriate came to her, so she joined him in silence for a while. But silence was never Ms Rosenberg's strong suit. 

'Buffy says 'hi',' she told him after several minutes. 'She wanted to come and lend a hand, but things are still kinda sketchy at home. And besides, in this instance she figured that two witches were of more use to you than a slayer.'

'How's Joyce?' Angel asked the rambling red-head.

'Better. We hope. The surgery went well, so we're playing the wait and see game,' Willow replied.

'I hate that game,' Angel said. 'But it's good that it went well. Buffy doesn't need anymore heartache in her life.'

They were silent again. For a moment. 'So how are you doing?'

'Me? I'm good.'

'Good,' Willow replied, not believing him for a second. 'They'll be alright, you know.'

Angel didn't say anything for a moment, staring out the windscreen at the street ahead. After a moment's pause, he replied, 'I don't know that anymore, Willow. This woman, who I've only just started to get to know… my sister. She's out there right now, and I can't find her. More than likely she's being tortured. And Cordy…'

'We find Kathy and Cordy will be just fine,' Willow reassured him.

'You don't know that. We can't be sure,' Angel shook his head. 'The visions are doing so much damage, more than we ever thought… I don't know if she can sustain them much longer.'

He pulled up behind a warehouse and looked at the witch.

'This is it. Sense anything?'

'Uh, yeah. Trouble,' Willow replied as a dozen robed figured immerged from the shadows around them.

* * *

The book Willow and Tara had carried from Sunnydale might not be the original text, but it was as good as any commentary Wesley had seen. It didn't take him long to find out what might be of interest to the demon. And, more importantly, he discovered just what the demon didn't want them to know. 

'Ah,' the ex-Watcher said as he finished reading a particularly pertinent chapter. 'It seems Doodheks _does _plan to regain his corporeal form by drawing on the power of witches. And if he plans to do it, it must be soon.'

'The equinox,' Tara observed. 'Time of Power.'

'Precisely,' Wesley agreed. 'That, combined with a number of other factors, makes this the ideal time for the demon.'

'So, we need to stop him before he gets any more power and turns solid?' Tar replied.

'Not necessarily,' Wesley replied. Off her look, he went on, 'I mean, of course we need to stop him from killing Kathy, and anyone else. But the demon turning 'solid' might not be a bad thing at this juncture.'

'Um, doesn't the demon _not_ being solid mean that he can't, you know, kill us?'

'In his spirit form, Doodheks can influence others to do his killing for him. But corporeal, there is a way to destroy him for good. I suspect that is why he sent his flunkies to steal the book from the victim's home. He doesn't want us knowing that.'

'But now we do,' Tara said with a little smile. 'So, all we have to do is make him corporeal _without_ any other witches dying. I think I might have the spell to do it.'

'You won't be doing any more spells, witch,' said a cold voice behind them. 'You will be another sacrifice for the Vessel of the Word.'

Wesley and Tara turned to see several monks closing in on them.

* * *

Victor wiped the blood from his knife as he approached Kathy. She looked at him defiantly, despite her eyes being swollen from her tears. 

'Time to begin your purification, witch,' he told her.

Kathy shook her head. 'You're the one who needs purified, you monster. You think this is God's holy work you're doing? Killing innocent girls?'

'They were not innocent. They were witches. Servants of the devil.'

'There is no devil in the craft,' Kathy replied. 'And you're one to talk. You, who are in bed with a demon.'

'I serve the Lord. Lagos, his holy word.'

'You serve Doodheks, corruptor of mankind,' Kathy told him, her voice steady despite her fear. 'You feed him witches to bring him back to the earthly plane.'

Victor drew his hand back and sent it across her face, knocking the wind from her. 'Silence, witch!' he said angrily.

'Truth hurts, huh?'

'Yes it does,' Victor said with a sneer. 'As you will learn now, as I burn the truth into you.'

He gestured to one of his followers, who went to a fire at the side of the room and drew out a metal poker. Its tip glowed red as the monk handed it to his leader.

'Now, this may hurt,' Victor said, placing the hot metal near her skin. 'A lot.'

* * *

_To Be Continued..._

_A/N: The Latin used by Victor translates as: _

_'Voice of death, sing for this witch. Purify her soul with your fire. Fill her black heart with your truth. Word (or cry) of God fill her and damn her for eternity.' _

I used an English to Latin translation webpage for this, so if it isn't entirely accurate I appologise (but Latin isn't my first language) :-)


	8. Battlestations

_A/N: Big thank you to all who've taken the time to leave reviews. Please continue to do so - you make me smile._

_Only around two chapters to go after this - the end is near..._

* * *

Angel grabbed his favorite broadsword which lay beside him and leapt out of the car. Metal clashed on metal as his first opponent swung his weapon at Angel's head, and Angel deflected the blow. One boot in the chest later, the monk was staggering backwards and two more were charging forward to take his place.

Two monks circled around the battle and moved towards Willow, who had gotten out of the car, looking for an opportunity to use her magic to help Angel. The monks thought they were sneaking up on her, but Willow had long since spotted them out of the corner of her eye. Over the years, she had more than enough practice playing the damsel in distress, and right now she was playing it to perfection. When the first monk was within grabbing distance she turned, and sent him flying with a flick of her wrist. He in turn crashed into the second guy, both of them landing in a heap. Willow smiled. She'd been practicing a lot over the past month, just like Kathy had suggested.

Angel cracked two of the attacking monks' heads together. As they sprawled to the ground, five more jumped on top of the vampire, figuring that five on one might be better odds. They thought wrong. They may have their fair share of fighting skills, but they weren't any match for Angel. Moments later, all the monks lay unconscious or dead and Angel grinned over at Willow.

'Well, that was bracing.'

'Come on. You could have taken them in your sleep.'

'Yeah, well… I don't like to brag,' he said, before getting serious. 'Let's do what we came here to do.'

'Sure thing,' Willow replied, grabbing a candle from her bag. 'This'll just take a minute.'

* * *

Wesley regarded the several feet that separated him from the weapons cabinet. He didn't like his chances of getting there before the monks got to him or Tara. But their robed friends were getting closer by the second. Looking at the frightened witch at his side he drew her attention towards him.

'Uh, Tara, you couldn't possibly…?'

Tara got his meaning. Holding her hand out in front of her she murmured, '_Congelo_.' The monks immediately froze on the spot, and didn't look happy about it.

'Uh, that'll only last a few seconds, so hurry,' she told him.

Jumping hurriedly over the counter, he ran for the cabinet. He managed to put his hands on a sword and an axe when the spell wore off and the monks charged. Wesley braced himself, a weapon in each hand, batting away the first attacker with the side of the axe.

Swinging his sword around, he parried a strike from another attacker. Over the monk's shoulder, he could see Tara magically throwing books, small pieces of furniture and, Wesley noticed with a wince, his china teapot, at three monks who were closing in on her. Her efforts were keeping them at bay – for now. Turing his attention back to his own fight, he had managed to cut down his opponent and faced the next one when he heard Tara scream.

Two other monks had snuck up behind the witch and grabbed her from behind when she was fending off their three friends. Quickly covering her head with a sack and securing her hands behind her back so that she couldn't perform any defensive magic, they were now dragging her out of the lobby. Frantic, Wesley didn't see how he could get to her in time. He still had three armed monks of his own blocking his path.

Suddenly, one of the monks holding Tara looked down at his chest. A look of surprise crossed his hooded features as he saw blood, and the tip of a sword protruding from his chest. As he fell to the ground, his friends saw the man who had killed him. Charles Gunn stood there, smiling.

'Time I had a little prayer meeting with y'all,' he said, hefting his favorite, home-made axe. Before the shocked monks even had time to blink, Gunn had cut down two of them. The third had managed to pull himself together by the time Gunn came to him, and met the blow of his axe with his sword.

A fourth monk was about jump into the fight when he felt a soft tap on his shoulder. The appearance of Gunn had meant that Tara's captors had let go of her hands and she had been able to remove the sack from her head. The monk turned to see Tara's smiling face before she said, '_Caecus'_, blinding the monk temporarily. She took advantage of his situation with a swift kick to his shin and a heavy ornament across the back of his head. He fell to the ground, unconscious. As his friend lunged at her, Tara swung the ornament up, catching him under the chin and sending him flying backwards. As he too fell to the ground, she intoned, '_Immobilus'. _The monk wasn't going to be getting up anytime soon.

Gunn defeated his third opponent and turned in time to see Wesley finish one off, with two more coming at him. Hefting his axe, Gunn flung it at one of his friend's attackers. The robed figure fell to the ground, Gunn's axe in his back. Wesley took advantage of the remaining monk's shock and punched him in the face, knocking him out cold.

Gunn looked appreciatively down at the ground at the monks that Tara had taken out. 'Damn, girl. You got game.'

* * *

'Do you sense anything?' Angel asked the flame-haired witch.

Willow was deep in concentration, a single candle in her hands, using its flame for focus. 'Yeah. Wow, it's a pretty simple concealment charm. Won't take us long to bring it down. _Amateurs_,' she said with distain.

'What about Kathy?' Angel said with urgency in his voice. 'Anything?'

'It's really faint,' Willow told him, screwing up her eyes with concentration. 'I _think _I sense her…' Her eyes flew open. 'I got her. I can feel her fear. Oh god, Angel, she's in so much pain.'

'Where?' the vampire asked, now frantic.

'I can't pinpoint the location. I'm going to need Tara and the spell ingredients.'

'There's no time to go back to hotel!'

'Then call them and get them here.'

* * *

Kathy screamed for what felt like the thousandth time that night. She had been determined not to let Victor get to her, to not give him the satisfaction of hearing her scream, of seeing her cry. But all that determination was lost when the searing pain racked her body. After her had tortured her for an hour or more with red hot pokers, he switched to using a whip, which frankly she thought was a brief respite from the previous burning pain. But now the fire was back, and she was wishing for death. Death she knew she had a lifetime of pain to wait for.

As he moved the hot metal away from her skin, she dry heaved. Her throat was raw from screaming and her eyes almost swollen shut from her tears. Through their slits, she could see Victor, and right now he was smiling.

'Do you feel it, witch?' he asked. 'Do you feel the burn of salvation?'

She swallowed, trying to get some strength into her voice for an answer. 'No,' she managed hoarsely. 'Mostly, I just feel bored with your self-righteous voice.'

He rewarded her cheek with another burn, this time to her leg. 'You will wish for death before the end. But first you will be purified.'

'Purify yourself, you bastard,' she told him, defiance burning in her eyes, as hot as the poker he was using to torture her. He might make her scream, but he wasn't going to break her. 'Or does your demon buddy like you dirty?'

She saw a flash of light behind Victor, and an angelic vision appear in its midst. The figure had golden hair and features, clad in shimmering white robes.

'Victor,' it spoke with an almost harmonic voice. 'This witch will corrupt you if you let her.'

Victor had knelt before the figure, his head bowed in reverence. 'I am your devoted servant, my Lord,' the monk replied.

'Gag her mouth,' the figure ordered him.

Kathy had no doubt who this glittering figure was. Despite the purity of his image, her witch's eyes could see beneath it, realizing that all that glitters most certainly wasn't gold. And this was no angel. He was a demon.

'Getting too close to the truth for your liking, Doodheks?' she asked the creature. 'Like the outfit, by the way. Some demons like to dress up as little kids. You go with the Annatar disguise. Professor Tolkien would be flattered.'

'Gag the witch, Victor,' Doodheks ordered, ignoring Kathy. 'And then prepare your monks. The vampire will be coming for her.'

'Angel,' Kathy whispered, hope building within her.

* * *

Gunn had driven faster than usual and soon he was parking his truck behind Angel's convertible. He, Wesley and Tara jumped out.

'We need to do this fast, people,' Angel told them. 'Kathy is being tortured as we speak.'

Willow and Tara got to work, casting a reversal spell on the monks' concealment charm.

'Angel,' Wesley approached the agitated vampire. 'We found out some useful information about Doodheks.'

Angel looked around at the group as something suddenly struck him. 'Wait. What about Cordelia? Who's watching her?'

'We moved her to one of the hotel's bedrooms, and Tara put a protection spell around her. She's safe,' Wesley reassured him. 'Now, Doodheks means to become corporeal again, by using the slain witches' energy. The power that Kathy possesses will probably mean that he gets his wish.'

'They're not going to kill Kathy, so he _won't_ get his wish,' Angel said angrily.

'Agreed. But it may be to our advantage if _we_ returned his corporeal body to him. Magically,' Wesley said. 'That's why the monks stole the book from Melissa's apartment. It contains a spell that, once Doodheks is of flesh and blood, will remove his immortality.'

'What English is saying is that we need to turn the spirity demon into a real live boy, then squish him,' Gunn elaborated.

'Sounds like a plan,' Angel agreed, as a flash of light told him the concealment charm had been disabled. 'We good to go?' he asked the witches.

'Almost,' Willow replied. Side by side with Tara, they now began to chant. '_Aradia, Goddess of the lost, the path is murky, the woods are dense, darkness pervades, I beseech thee, bring the light._'

A ball of green light appeared before them. 'Take us to Kathy,' Tara commanded it. With only a second's hesitation, it took off.

'Let's go,' Willow said.

* * *

_To Be Continued..._

_A/N: 'Congelo' is freeze in Latin, 'Caecus' means blind or sightless, also in Latin. As for 'Immobilus' , I'm pretty sure I stole it from Harry Potter. _

_Annatar is the angelic form that Sauron took in order to fool the Elves of Middle Earth into making the rings of Power (Lord of the Rings)_

_The spell to Aradia that Willow and Tara use is taken from Buffy, Season 4 episode 'Fear, Itself'_


	9. SmackDown

_A/N: Hi everyone. As always, thank you so much for the reviews. I hope you're all still with me as we near the end of the tale. And what an end. I'm a little exhausted after writing this - its the first time writing something with so many things happening at once - ergo a lot of cross-cutting between the different players. Also, be warned, a lot of Latin in this chapter. I hope it's relatively accurate, as i don't speak it myself :-) I use a website that translates English to Latin for me - so any mistakes, blame them... All translations will follow at the end of the chapter._

_Only one chapter to go... Please Read and Review and make my day..._

* * *

Kathy turned and twisted her head away from Victor's hand, which was coming at her with the rag he planned to gag her with. Straining as far away as possible from him, she had frustrated all his efforts. He let out a grunt of frustration and finally back-handed her across the face, sending the world into a spin. Dazed, she could no longer resist the cloth as it was shoved into her mouth. It tasted dirty and she struggled to push it forward in her mouth with her tongue, trying to get it away from the back of her throat where it would restrict her breathing. Already she could feel the moisture trickling down the back of her throat, and she began to gag.

'That will shut you up now witch,' Victor told her. 'Pity. I did like the way you were screaming for me.'

The look in Kathy's eyes said what her voice could not. Victor glanced back at his master for approval. The glowing figure nodded.

'Now you must hurry. The vampire comes to save the witch. You will not have time for your usual two days of ritual.'

'But, my Lord…' Victor began to protest.

'Do not argue with me, Victor. You must sacrifice her now.'

* * *

Angel and the rest of the team were running at full speed, trying to keep up with Willow and Tara's glowing guide. Now that the concealment charm was down, Angel could sense his sister, even from a distance. Like all of his kind, he could sense fear, smell it even. Right now, he could sense Kathy's fear, and it sent chills through him. Somehow, he sensed that they didn't have much time. 

Finally, the miniature golden orb came to a stop, hovering over a warehouse at the end of a darkened alley. The group held back, warily checking out the path, from their position to its door. It wouldn't be the first time they were ambushed in an alleyway. Angel turned to the rest of the group.

'Wes, you stay with the girls. Cast whatever spells you need to bring down Doodheks,' he told them in a quiet voice. 'Gunn and I will go on ahead, and take down any monks that get in the way. You guys are our backups. When the magic's over, try and get into the warehouse and get Kathy out.'

The rest of the group nodded. Willow and Tara hastily began to unpack the spell ingredients. Angel did another quick sweep of the alley with his eyes and then looked back to Willow.

'How long will it take?'

Willow looked up at him, her nervousness showing. 'Five minutes, give or take… If nothing, you know, goes wrong.'

'Which given our track record, would _never_ happen,' Wesley interjected, just a hint of sarcasm playing in his voice.

'Let's do this,' Angel said, turning to Gunn. 'You ready?'

Gunn lifted his axe up. 'You even have to ask?'

With that, they ran off into the alley. After watching them go for a moment, Wesley turned to the two witches.

'Let's get to it, ladies, shall we?'

* * *

The alley was too quiet. Far too quiet, Angel thought. They were only a hundred yards from the warehouse and still, nothing. Something was wrong. 

'This is too easy,' Angel remarked to Gunn in a low voice. 'You'd think we'd have met some resistance by now.'

Just when he thought that it really was going to be that easy, his vampire hearing picked up an arrow whizzing towards him. He moved just in time to stop it going into his heart, but his shoulder still took the brunt of it. Spinning round with the impact, he saw dozens of hooded figures immerging from the shadows.

'You just had to go and jinx us, didn't you?' Gunn said, shooting Angel a dirty look. To the assembled monks, however, he was all bravado. 'Okay now, ladies. We've already kicked your butts a dozen ways from Sunday. But step on up if you want some more.'

Step on up they did. The monks descend on the pair, heavily armed and invigorated by the presence of their Lord. Each and every one believed this to be a holy quest, to protect the Vessel while he purified the witch. They would defend him with their life's blood. Blood which Angel was more than happy to spill in order to save his sister.

Metal clashed on metal, flesh on flesh, as Angel and Gunn tried to fight their way through the human barricade to the warehouse. Angel felt someone grab hold of the arrow, still embedded in his shoulder, and try to plunge it in deeper. The monk's grip slipped when Angel's fist introduced itself to his face. The monks fought well, but Angel and Gunn could hold their own and, slowly but surely, they edged their way towards their goal.

* * *

Willow and Tara had meanwhile created a magical circle, using crystals and sand, and now sat chanting in its centre. Their plan was to make the demon Doodheks corporeal, allowing Wesley to read the incantation that would bind him to the earth – making him susceptible to harm. 

As the girls continued to chant, Wesley felt the air around him stir. He could feel the magic rising. He had noted their combined power before, when they had come to help the Angel Investigations team a little over a month ago, and he was in awe of it now. The magic these two women wielded together was definitely greater that the sum of their parts.

'Hecate, Goddess of the Crossroads, bind this creature of evil to the mortal coil,' Willow began to chant, lifting her face towards the heavens. 'Give it back its earthly body. We beseech you, hear our cry.'

'Goddess, Mother, aid us in our magic,' Tara took up the spell. 'Send your Power through us to bend this creature to our will. Doodheks, killer of our kind, we curse thee. Give thee substance, give thee mass.'

Joining hands, Willow and Tara's eyes both locked; their magical powers at their heights. As one, they spoke the final word of the spell. '_Firmus._'

At their words, the magic that swirled around them in the circle turned golden and rose up to a point, before shooting off towards the warehouse and their target.

* * *

Kathy's eyes danced in pain as the knife cut into her flesh again. True to his master's orders, Victor had ended his torture of her. But now he was methodically inscribing her skin with the words she had seen cut into the other girls' flesh. The incantation that would release her power to Doodheks when Victor finally killed her. Kathy knew that that time was almost upon her. Victor had already written the first three lines of the spell, and with every letter, unbearable pain seared through her. 

A sudden blast of light in the darkened warehouse caught Kathy's attention. Victor paused in his task for a moment, and looked up in time to see a shaft of light hit his master. Doodheks shrieked, his voice unearthly and not at all as angelic as his appearance. As the light surrounded him, his body began to change, take shape, and become solid. And his solid form did not even remotely resemble the angelic, golden form in which he had been appearing to Victor.

The Doodheks that stood before them now was unmistakably demon, from the thick, leathery hide, to the misshapen horns that had sprouted from his head. Had Kathy not been gagged at that moment, she would have gasped at the now hideous creature before her. He, for his part, looked rather pleased.

'My body? Returned to me?' he said, his voice now a thick rasp. He looked at his hands in awe. 'Seems I didn't need you after all, witch. But I'll still take your power. I never say no to a little extra power.'

Victor stood, his mouth agape, not understanding what had happened. 'My Lord?' he asked hesitantly. 'What has happened?'

The demon thought fast. He still needed his religious lackey to finish the sacrifice. 'A trick,' he told him. 'Sent by our enemies to confuse you. Continue with your sacrifice. I will deal with the heretics.' With that, he was gone.

* * *

Angel and Gunn had taken out the majority of the monks, leaving a heap of unconscious bodies in their wake. They were now only twenty yards or so from the door to the warehouse. And, as far as Angel was concerned, it wasn't a moment too soon. He could not only smell his sister's fear. He could smell her blood. As far as he could tell, she was still alive, but for how much longer he couldn't be sure. 

Angel drove his fist into yet another monk's face, and before the man had even fallen to the ground unconscious, Angel had charged forward, towards the door. His hand was inches away from the handle when a flash of bright light knocked him backwards, off his feet.

Angel looked up and saw an extremely ugly demon towering over him. At least 7 foot tall, with horns and claws, the demon surveyed the fallen vampire with interest. Angel leapt back up to his feet.

'Let me guess. Doodheks, I presume?' Angel asked drolly. The demon inclined his head slightly. 'I'll take that as a yes,' Angel replied, charging forward once more.

* * *

There spell now complete, Willow and Tara got to their feet and looked at Wesley. Willow was about to ask what was next, when a stabbing pain went through her stomach. Bent over, clutching her side, she looked up at Tara to see a similar look of pain. 

'Oh, goddess,' Willow whispered. 'Kathy!'

'What is it? What's wrong?' Wesley asked, trying to keep his panic to a minimum.

'She's in so much pain,' Tara told him. 'Now that we're close by, we can feel it.'

'They're getting ready for the kill,' Willow said, straightening up and looking frightened.

'Go!' Wesley told them. 'Get into the warehouse somehow, and get her out of there.'

'What about the other spell?' Tara asked.

'I can do the incantation alone. Then I'll join Angel and Gunn in trying to get in the front. You girls sneak round the back entrance. It should be less heavily guarded.'

Tara and Willow looked at each other and nodded. 'Good luck,' Willow told the ex-Watcher, before she and her lover ran off into the night.

'Good luck,' Wesley whispered after them.

* * *

Hustling down another alley, which ran parallel to the one Angel was currently fighting on, Willow and Tara saw the back door to the warehouse. Only five monks were guarding it. Working in tandem, not needing to speak to know what the other was thinking, Willow reached into her pocket and wrapped her hand around a vile of powder. Sprinkling some into her palm, she moved forward, while Tara kept to the shadows. 

'Hi!' she said brightly to the armed, robed figures. 'I'm a little lost. I'm trying to get to the Bacchanal.'

The monk's looked at one another and then one stepped forward, leering at Willow. 'Witch,' he said with venom in his tone.

'You betcha,' Willow replied, raising her hand and blowing the powder into his and his nearest neighbor's faces. The powder worked immediately, and the fell down, fast asleep.

Creeping up behind them, Tara had grabbed a plank of wood as a weapon. As another of the monks started towards Willow, she clocked him over the head. He staggered stupidly for a moment, before falling down, out cold.

Two left. Willow and Tara liked those odds. Almost as one being, they faced off their respective opponents and cast their spells. Willow intoned, '_nex amo somnus_', while Tara said, '_sicco gelu_'. Both monks followed their comrades into a deep sleep.

* * *

Stepping into the magical circle which Willow and Tara had vacated, Wesley glanced down the words he had to say, familiarizing himself with them. Then, clearing his throat once, he began. 

'_Bestia quisnam nutritor in veneficus ,__reus iam ut terrenus plagiarius ,_

_temerarius vis of meus lacuna ,__fio minor validus , fio castro._

_Vos quisnam constupro man's visum ,__haud diutius immortalis mos vos exsisto ,_

_nex mos reperio vos , nex mos servo vos ,__reus ut pulvis vadum vos exsisto_'

Which meant: _Beast who feeds on witches, Bound now to the earthly plane, __Heed the force of my words, Become less powerful, become unmade. __You who corrupts mans' vision, No longer immortal will you be, __Death will find you, death will keep you, Bound to dust shall you be_.

Looking up from the page, Wesley looked around for some indication that the spell had worked. Unlike the girls' spell, there was no light show, no fanfare. Closing his book with a shrug, he could only pray that it had worked. Picking up his weapons, he ran off to join the fray.

* * *

The fight was not going too well for Angel. Doodheks was a powerful fighter in his solid form, and still impervious to harm, as far as Angel could tell. Twice he had plunged his sword into the demon, and twice he had only been rewarded with a brief howl, followed by getting to watch the demon rapidly heal. It sort of reminded him of the Mayor, and inwardly he urged Wesley to hurry up with his spell. 

Gunn was holding his own against the remaining five monks. However, he was really beginning to miss the lack of moral ambiguity that came with fighting vamps. With them he knew what he had to do – dust them. But these monk guys were human. They may be allied with evil and planning on killing a friend of his, not to mention that fact that they were more than prepared to kill him too. But he still wasn't that comfortable hacking and slashing at them. Wherever possible, he was cold cocking them, knocking them out rather that killing or injuring them. Unfortunately, that way took a lot longer.

Angel went flying passed him at that moment, and hit the wall with a thud. Sliding down in, he shook his head to clear it. Man, that demon packed a punch. He jumped back up to his feet and was about to charge again, when he saw Wesley enter the alley.

'Is it done?' Angel called to him.

Wesley held a single thumb up in the air, hoping that he wasn't mistaken. It was good enough for Angel, who raised his sword and attacked, while Wesley ran to help Gunn.

* * *

Tara and Willow entered the darkened warehouse. In the far corner, they saw Kathy, chained up, her arms spread out, crucifixion-style. In front of her stood a lone monk, carving at her with a knife. 

'_Permoveo absentis_!' Willow yelled, with a wave of her hand. Victor spun away from Kathy and landed on the ground several feet away. Tara ran towards Kathy to free her, while Willow squared up to the crazy monk.

'Witches!' he spat. 'What do you think you are doing? I was purifying her soul!' He started to get to his feet, wielding his dagger.

'S_ubsisto illic_,' Willow said, keeping him on the ground.

Tara managed to open Kathy's chains, and was now helping the weakened and bleeding girl over to where Willow stood.

'We need to get you out of here and back to the hotel,' Tara was saying gently. Kathy looked exhausted, her arms, legs and stomach were bleeding freely, her body covered in burns. But she shook her head.

'Angel,' she said, moving towards the front door.

'Kathy, you're too weak,' Willow protested.

'I need to finish this,' Kathy told her, determined. As she walked passed Victor, he grabbed her leg.

'I'll finish _you_, witch,' he snarled.

'C_eadaigh_ _téigh_!' Kathy said in a voice that did not match her weakened state.

At her words, Victor's hand seared in pain, and he leapt back, as though burnt. Without blinking, Kathy kicked him in the face and he fell back, out cold.

'_Okay_,' Willow said. 'Not too weak.'

'Let's go,' Kathy told them.

* * *

Angel was attacking the demon fiercely now, but couldn't land a killing blow. The demon was powerful, and right now Angel was on the wrong end of that power. Bleeding from a gash in his head, he blinked the blood out of his eyes in time to see the demon's fist come at him once more. The blow made his ears ring, and he hit the wall for what felt like the tenth time. As Doodheks loomed up over him once more, Angel took his chance and drove his sword into the demon's chest. 

Doodheks wailed in pain, and this time the wound did not heal up. The demon looked down at the blood that flowed from him, but instead of collapsing, he looked back at Angel, mightily pissed off. Grabbing the vampire by the neck, he pulled him up, dangling him mid-air. While the demon wasn't affecting Angel's breathing, since he didn't actually breathe, Angel was still more than a little concerned. Doodheks might not be able to strangle him to death, but Angel was fairly certain the demon could rip his head off.

A flash of light knocked Angel from Doodheks' grip. Looking up, Angel saw Kathy, flanked by Willow and Tara, coming towards them. Kathy looked badly beaten, and covered in blood, but her eyes were unwavering. Looking closer, Angel saw that Kathy's eyes had in fact turned completely green, and right now they were focused on the demon.

'_Doodheks , vernula of obscurum, audite meus vox. Per meus lacuna , vado tergum ut abyssus ut spat vos sicco_,' she said in a powerful, almost unearthly voice. Her hands cupped together in front of her, and a glowing ball appeared. As she continued to speak, it grew in size. '_Per vestri nex , Ego exsequor veneficus vos occisor_.' The ball of light was now at least two foot in diameter.

'Didn't you mother ever tell you?' Willow quipped. 'Never get on the wrong side of a witch.'

Kathy took aim and hurled the ball of energy towards the demon. Without time to get out of its path, it hit him full on the chest. Screaming and writhing in agony, he burst into flames, before turning to dust. At the sight of this, the few monks still standing dropped their weapons and ran.

All her energy spent, Kathy swayed on the spot and started to fall. Tara and Willow grabbed her just before she hit the ground. Dashing over to her, Angel picked her up in his arms.

'Kathy?' he asked. Her eyes slowly fluttered open.

'Hey,' she said in a hoarse voice.

'Let's get you home,' he told her.

'How's Cordy?' Kathy asked before she lost consciousness.

* * *

_To Be Continued..._

_A/N: Okay, lot of Latin (and a little bit of Gaelic for good measure)_

_The Latin:_

_nex amo somnus_ - death-like sleep (Willow spell to knock outa monk)

_sicco gelu_ - out cold (Tara's spell to knock out a monk)

_Permoveo absentis – _move away (Willow's spell on Victor)

_subsisto illic _– stay there (Willow's other spell to keep Victor on the ground)

_Doodheks , vernula of obscurum, audite meus vox. Per meus lacuna , vado tergum ut abyssus ut spat vos sicco _- Doodheks, servant of darkness, hear my cry. With my words, go back to the hell that spat you out. (Kathy's spell to defeatDoodheks pt 1)

_Per vestri nex , Ego exsequor veneficus vos occisor_ - With your death, I avenge the witches you murdered. (Kathy's spell pt 2)

_The Gaelic:_

C_eadaigh_ _téigh _– Let go! (Kathy's spell against Victor)


	10. Recovery

_Authors Note: Well,we come to it at last... the last chapter of 'Belief'. I have to tell you, I went through hell writing this - so many different drafts, just trying to find an end. And, to be honest, I'm still not sure I like this one, but its the best I've got in me right now. And it kinda leaves things open for another story - but one that will not be written in the immediate future, as I'm still working on two other stories (my Angel-fic 'Evermore' and my CSI-fic 'Valentine' - plug plug)._

_Hope you enjoyed the ride, I know I did (right up to the writer's block during this chapter). Thanks to everyone who reviewed - it really meant a lot. Let me know what you think about the ending, if you feel so inclined... Take care and I'll catch you on the flipside._

_-shannon (aka forensicsgirl)_

* * *

Willow and Tara rushed through the doors of the Hyperion at top speed, closely followed by Angel, carrying Kathy in his arms. She had regained consciousness only briefly, in the car on the way to the hospital. When she learned where they were taking her, she insisted they return to the hotel. She mumbled something about Cordy not having much time. 

Angel didn't need to be told twice. Urging Gunn to turn the car around, he looked back at his sister, only to find her unconscious once more. He hoped he was doing the right thing by listening to her.

Gently, he set her down on the couch that, until a few hours ago, had been Cordelia's resting place. Still worried about having left her alone in so vulnerable a state, he asked Gunn to go upstairs and check on her, while he and Wesley helped the girls rouse Kathy.

The two witches were flipping through spell books and pulling out ingredients as fast as they could.

'So, what _exactly_ are you planning?' Angel asked them, more than a little worried.

Willow looked up from the text she was looking through and tried to give him a confident, comforting smile. She failed miserably. 'I remember seeing a healing spell in one of Kathy's books. Hopefully it will fix her up enough so that she can bring back Cordy. Then we can get her to hospital.' She paused, not wanting to worry him, but then decided he had a right to know. 'She's lost a lot of blood. She might need a transfusion.'

She resumed flipping. Wesley moved to her side to help. Tara, meanwhile, was crushing various herbs with a pestle and mortar, before going to Kathy's side. At Angel's inquiring look, she smiled softly. 'A poultice. It'll stop the bleeding and ease her pain.' She proceeded to apply it to Kathy's numerous wounds.

Ten minutes later, Willow and Tara were ready and standing at either side of Kathy's limp form and each holding a quartz crystal. Slowly, they began to pass the crystals over Kathy's body.

'Gia, Goddess, Mother. Restore your daughter to full strength,' Willow said in a strong voice. 'Our hearts as one, we beseech you, hear our cry.'

'Goddess, do not ignore our supplication,' Tara continued. 'Send your energy through the earth to your fallen daughter. Restore her to health. So mote it be.'

They felt the crystals grow hotter for a moment, before the heat passed out of them towards the sleeping witch. After a few more moments, they heard Kathy groan softly.

Angel was immediately at her side. 'Kathy?'

Her eyes fluttered open, and closed again, as though the light hurt her eyes. She swallowed painfully. 'Hey,' she said in a hoarse voice.

'How are you feeling?' he asked.

'Like I've been tortured and cut open.' Kathy's eyes opened again and she attempted a smile. 'I wish I could say I've had worse… But I'll live.'

She tried to sit up, but immediately sunk back down again, barely stifling a yell of pain. She swallowed again, before looking at Angel more urgently. 'Where's Cordy?'

'She's upstairs.'

'Is she… still unconscious?'

Angel nodded. Kathy closed her eyes, this time at the news of Cordelia's condition. 'Damn it. I should have been more careful. Can you bring her down here? I don't think I can make it up the stairs.'

Angel nodded and looked at Gunn and Wesley. Both men understood at once and hurried off up the stairs.

Kathy attempted to clear her throat, which resulted in a painful coughing fit. When it ended, she looked over Angel's shoulder. 'Willow? Tara?'

'Hey Kathy,' Willow replied, trying to sound upbeat. 'What can we do?'

'Set up the circle as I had it before. When I was working with Cordelia. Quartz, sodalite and agate. Candles,' her words came in short bursts, as if each syllable caused her a great deal of pain.

As the girls hustled off to do as Kathy asked, Angel crouched down closer to his sister and gently took her hand. 'Are you sure you have strength for this? You should be in a hospital,' he told her.

'I'll go later,' she replied. 'I need to take care of Cordy first. The longer she is out of her body, the more dangerous it is.'

The sound of footsteps alerted them to Gunn and Wesley's return. Gunn was carrying a still unconscious Cordelia. As Angel watched them carry her to the circle, he felt his unbeating heart ache. If anything happened to her. If they couldn't get her back…

'Can you get me to the circle, Angel?' Kathy's voice brought him out of his reverie. 'My legs seem not to want to work right now.'

Mindful of her wounds, Angel picked the witch up and carried her to the circle. 'Where…?'

'Just beside Cordy,' she replied. He gently laid her on the ground beside the seemingly lifeless Seer.

Reaching out, Kathy clasped Cordelia's hand in hers. Closing her eyes, she sent out a heartfelt plea to the Goddess. 'Hecate, help me.' Softly, she began to chant. Moments passed.

Suddenly the Seer gasped, and as her eyes flew open she sat bolt upright. Angel was there immediately, putting his arms around her for support. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her head in his shoulder. 'Angel,' she said softly.

'Hey. Welcome back, Cordy,' he said, relief overwhelming his voice. He helped her stand on shaky legs. Looking down, Cordelia saw that Kathy had been lying beside her. The witch's eyes were now closed.

'Kathy?' Cordelia asked, worried. Forgetting her own disorientation, she crouched down beside the wounded woman and checked her breathing. 'Angel! We need to get her to hospital.'

* * *

It was a tense 24 hours. For a whole day, the AI team waited, either in the hospital or by the phone, for news of Kathy's condition. Angel had been told that she was highly critical when they first brought her in. Over the course of the day that was downgraded to critical but stable, and subsequently changed to stable. The entire time, Angel and Cordy sat outside her room in ICU, with Cordelia holding his hand in both of hers for support. 

The doctors had given Kathy three units of blood, followed by a saline drip to avoid dehydration. She was also given high doses of antibiotics to combat possible infection from the burns and open cuts that covered her body.

On the fifth hour of their vigil, Wesley arrived to inform them that Victor had been found by the police at the warehouse (due, for the most part, to an anonymous tip phoned in by Wesley himself) and arrested on three counts of murder and one of attempted murder. The police would have to interview Kathy, Wesley warned. When she woke up.

When he was eventually allowed to see her, Angel was startled by the change in her. She looked so small in the bed, her wounds covered in gauze, so helpless and almost frail. At the same time, the swelling had already started to go down in her face, and she looked almost peaceful.

'She almost looks like she's sleeping,' Angel said softly, looking back to the doorway and Cordelia, who stood framed in it.

'She is,' Cordy replied just as softly, coming into the room and laying a comforting hand on Angel's arm. 'She just needs to rest. She's been through a lot. But she's going to be okay, Angel.'

* * *

The next thing Kathy remembered was waking up in a hospital bed to the sound of a wry female voice. 

'Well, glad to see that I'm not the only one who's been catching up on her beauty sleep.'

Kathy turned her head slightly to reveal Cordelia Chase sitting at her bedside, beaming.

'Hey,' she managed to croak.

'You need to lay off your voice for a while,' Cordy told her. 'By all accounts, you've worn it out.' The Seer smiled at the witch. 'Just as well I can do enough talking for both of us.'

Kathy let out a soft chuckle at that and opened her mouth to reply.

'Oh no you don't,' Cordelia scolded her. 'Before you ask – I'm fine. Feeling very rested actually. And non-headachy, for a change. Angel is fine. Almost totally healed from his fight with the big bad. Willow and Tara got called back to Sunnydale – some kind of emergency to do with Buffy's little sister. They're sorry they couldn't stay, but Will says she'll call you next week to check up. Wesley and Gunn are on a case. They stayed until the doctors told us you were out of the woods.'

Kathy smiled at Cordy's almost manic energy as she filled her in on the last 24 hours. Evidently she'd had _too _much rest… Swallowing, she disregarded Dr Cordelia's instructions and spoke. 'Where's Angel?'

'Getting us coffee,' Cordy said with a smirk. 'It's kinda been a long night. Well, a long night and day and now night again. He was becoming a cranky vampire.'

The drugs were making their presence felt again. Kathy's eyes began to close, but she struggled to keep them open. 'I'm sorry the spell didn't work properly…' she said in a groggy voice.

'That's okay,' Cordelia said. 'Like I said. I feel better. And we can always try something else. When you're feeling up to it. Now, you should get some rest. If Angel knew I was keeping you awake talking, he'd skin me alive.'

'Oh, Cordy, you know I don't do that. _Anymore_,' Angel's said as he entered carrying two cups of coffee.

'Hey,' Cordy said brightly. 'Not talking. Letting her sleep,' she told him with her most innocent grin. 'Coffee?'

She accepted the cup he held out to her. Looking down at the bed, Angel noticed that Kathy had drifted off to sleep again. Seeing this, Cordelia got up and gathered her jacket and bag.

'Okay, so I'm going to use this opportunity to go home and take a shower,' Cordy said. 'Cuz right now, not so much April fresh.'

'Get some sleep too,' Angel said.

'Oh, please. I've had enough sleep to last me at least a week,' she told him. 'I'll grab a shower and change, and when I come back, you can go home for some rest. You look dead on your feet.'

'Well, technically…'

She swatted his arm. 'Enough of the comedy, broody-boy, before you hurt yourself.' She smiled. 'I'll see you later.'

Once Cordy had gone, Angel settled into her vacant chair with a sigh. Taking hold of Kathy's hand gently, he smiled for the first time in days. After so much worry, the two most important women in his life were safe, and Kathy was on her way to a full recovery. It was a new sensation, worrying about his sister. He hadn't experienced it in more than two and half centuries and, truth be told, he actually kind of liked the feeling.

Slightly more unsettling was another feeling that had begun to creep in, without him even noticing at first. The worry he had felt for Cordelia these past few days was more than just concern for a co-worker, or even for one of his best friends. What he was feeling was so much more than that, and he tried to work out when it all started. He thought of how she had clung to him when she had woken up from the coma, and how that had felt - like his stomach had performed a triple somersault. Without realizing it, he gave his sister's hand a soft squeeze in response to the memory. She stirred slightly in the bed.

'She loves you too,' Kathy muttered to him softly, somewhere half-way between sleeping and waking.

* * *

_The End... (for now)_

_Big cyber-thanks to all my reviewers - _angel-cordy;rcaqua;fllnangel;Moonjava;Rachael; and Caritas. You guysROCK!


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